Phone prefixes in Metabetchouan, QC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

5

Telephone numbers covered

50,000

Carriers

4

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

August 21, 2008

Most recent assignment

November 6, 2018

Metabetchouan’s share of its area codes

Within area code 581, Metabetchouan accounts for only 4 of 778 prefixes (0.5%): the code is dominated by Quebec and spread over 232 rate centres. Within area code 418, Metabetchouan accounts for only 1 of 777 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Quebec and spread over 258 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

TELUS Quebec holds the largest share at 2 prefixes, 40.0% of the total, ahead of 3 other carriers. Code by code: in 581, TELUS Quebec leads with 2 of 4 prefixes ahead of 2 others; Bell Canada is the only holder in 418. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Metabetchouan’s 2 area codes, while 4 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

None of Metabetchouan’s holders carries a mobility brand in its registered name: all 5 prefixes belong to wireline or wholesale carriers, among them TELUS Quebec, Bell Canada, Telecommunications Xittel Inc and Videotron Ltd. A call showing a Metabetchouan number therefore nominally comes from a landline, cable or VoIP platform rather than a locally assigned cellphone.

How the allocation was built up

Metabetchouan’s dated assignments run from 2008 to 2018. The busiest period was 2015–2019, when 2 prefixes went to 2 carriers. 1 prefixes (20%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. No prefix has been added since 2020: demand for numbers in Metabetchouan is flat.

Metabetchouan’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Bell Canada: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to TELUS Quebec in 2008. The most recent arrivals are Videotron Ltd. (2015), Telecommunications Xittel Inc (2012) and TELUS Quebec (2008), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Metabetchouan.

Metabetchouan has just 5 prefixes (50,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

TELUS Quebec leads with 40.0% of the prefixes, but 3 competitors have set up in Metabetchouan: a market where the incumbent keeps the edge without exclusivity.

Allocation is mature: only 0.0% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2015–2019, and 1 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Metabetchouan numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

1 undated in the register.

Dialling a Metabetchouan number

Metabetchouan is served by 2 overlaid area codes (581 and 418). A 418 number is no more “out of town” than a 581 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Metabetchouan shares area codes 581 and 418 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Quebec, Chicoutimi, Rimouski, Alma, Riviere-du-Loup, Thetford Mines, Levis and Saint-Georges-de-Beauce. The largest of them, Quebec, holds 245 prefixes in 418 and 581; the smallest on the list, Chibougamau, has just 11.

What a Metabetchouan number tells you

A number attached to Metabetchouan tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Quebec, most often TELUS Quebec. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 4 carriers present here or to a VoIP service usable anywhere. Nor does it tell you who is calling: caller ID can be spoofed, and a Quebec area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Metabetchouan: code 581-716 is recorded for TELUS Quebec, so every 581-716-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Metabetchouan, Quebec” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Metabetchouan prefix

Each row is an in-service central-office code recorded for Metabetchouan, with its original holder and year of assignment.

Allocated prefixes

All 5 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Quebec