Phone prefixes in Midway, BC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

9

Telephone numbers covered

90,000

Carriers

6

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

July 4, 2007

Most recent assignment

October 15, 2025

Midway’s share of its area codes

Within area code 236, Midway accounts for only 6 of 730 prefixes (0.8%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 269 rate centres. Within area code 250, Midway accounts for only 3 of 781 prefixes (0.4%): the code is dominated by Victoria and spread over 268 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Iristel Inc. holds the largest share at 4 prefixes, 44.4% of the total, ahead of 5 other carriers. Code by code: in 236, Iristel Inc. leads with 4 of 6 prefixes ahead of 2 others; in 250, Bell Mobility leads with 1 of 3 prefixes ahead of 2 others. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Midway’s 2 area codes, while 6 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

2 of Midway’s 9 prefixes (22.2%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility and TELUS Mobility. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Iristel Inc, Navigata Communications Limited, Shaw Telecom Inc and TELUS. This is a sort by name, not a licence lookup, and a mobile prefix may have been ported to another network since.

How the allocation was built up

Midway’s dated assignments run from 2007 to 2025. The busiest period was 2015–2019, when 3 prefixes went to 3 carriers. 1 prefixes (11%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. Since 2020 another 3 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Midway’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to TELUS: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Bell Mobility in 2007. The most recent arrivals are Shaw Telecom Inc. (2018), Iristel Inc. (2016) and Navigata Communications Limited (2016), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Midway.

Midway has just 9 prefixes (90,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

Iristel Inc. leads with 44.4% of the prefixes, but 5 competitors have set up in Midway: a market where the incumbent keeps the edge without exclusivity.

Demand remains steady: 37.5% of the dated prefixes go back to the last ten years, the most active period being 2015–2019. The rate centre is growing at a regular rather than explosive pace.

1 undated in the register.

Dialling a Midway number

Midway is served by 2 overlaid area codes (236 and 250). A 250 number is no more “out of town” than a 236 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Midway shares area codes 236 and 250 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna, Nanaimo, South Kamloops, Prince George, Vernon and Penticton. The largest of them, Vancouver, holds 142 prefixes in 236; the smallest on the list, New Westminster, has just 11.

What a Midway number tells you

A number attached to Midway tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in British Columbia, most often Iristel Inc.. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 6 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 British Columbia area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Midway: code 236-201 is recorded for Iristel Inc., so every 236-201-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Midway, British Columbia” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Midway prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 9 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in British Columbia