Phone prefixes in Montague, PE

In numbers

In-service prefixes

14

Telephone numbers covered

140,000

Carriers

8

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

July 24, 2003

Most recent assignment

May 6, 2024

Montague’s share of its area codes

Within area code 902, Montague accounts for only 8 of 782 prefixes (1.0%): the code is dominated by Halifax and spread over 175 rate centres. Within area code 782, Montague accounts for only 6 of 456 prefixes (1.3%): the code is dominated by Halifax and spread over 142 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Bell Mobility Aliant holds the largest share at 3 prefixes, 21.4% of the total, ahead of 7 other carriers. Code by code: in 902, Bell Mobility Aliant leads with 2 of 8 prefixes ahead of 4 others; in 782, Iristel Inc. leads with 3 of 6 prefixes ahead of 3 others. 1 carrier holds prefixes in every one of Montague’s 2 area codes, while 7 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

5 of Montague’s 14 prefixes (35.7%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility Aliant, Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) and TELUS Mobility. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Iristel Inc, Aliant Telecom (PEI), Bragg Communications Inc and Distributel. 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

Montague’s dated assignments run from 2003 to 2024. The busiest period was 2015–2019, when 4 prefixes went to 3 carriers. 2 prefixes (14%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. Since 2020 another 2 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Montague’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Aliant Telecom (PEI) and Bell Mobility Aliant: these carriers made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Bragg Communications Inc. in 2003. The most recent arrivals are Distributel (2022), TELUS Integrated Communications (2016) and Iristel Inc. (2016), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Montague.

Montague has only 14 prefixes, or 140,000 numbers: a small rate centre, where the arrival of a single new carrier visibly changes the landscape.

No single carrier dominates Montague: the leader, Bell Mobility Aliant, holds only 21.4% of the prefixes against 7 competitors, a sign of a highly fragmented market where cable companies, mobility brands and VoIP providers weigh as much as the incumbent.

Allocation is mature: only 16.7% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2015–2019, and 2 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Montague numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

2 undated in the register.

Dialling a Montague number

Montague is served by 2 overlaid area codes (902 and 782). A 782 number is no more “out of town” than a 902 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Montague shares area codes 902 and 782 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Halifax, Charlottetown, Sydney, Truro, Amherst, New Glasgow, Kentville and Summerside. The largest of them, Halifax, holds 220 prefixes in 782 and 902; the smallest on the list, Port Hawkesbury, has just 12.

What a Montague number tells you

A number attached to Montague tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Prince Edward Island, most often Bell Mobility Aliant. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 8 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 Prince Edward Island area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Montague: code 902-784 is recorded for Bell Mobility Aliant, so every 902-784-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Montague, Prince Edward Island” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Montague prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 14 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Prince Edward Island