Phone prefixes in Montreal, QC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

1,273

Telephone numbers covered

12,730,000

Carriers

23

Area codes

3

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

October 21, 1999

Most recent assignment

January 22, 2026

Montreal’s share of its area codes

Montreal dominates area code 514: 684 of its 778 in-service prefixes, 87.9%, are attached to this rate centre, leaving the remainder to 6 other rate centres. Montreal dominates area code 438: 536 of its 604 in-service prefixes, 88.7%, are attached to this rate centre, leaving the remainder to 5 other rate centres. Montreal dominates area code 263: 53 of its 62 in-service prefixes, 85.5%, are attached to this rate centre, leaving the remainder to 5 other rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Bell Mobility holds the largest share at 295 prefixes, 23.2% of the total, ahead of 22 other carriers. Code by code: in 514, Bell Canada leads with 275 of 684 prefixes ahead of 17 others; in 438, Bell Mobility leads with 174 of 536 prefixes ahead of 19 others; in 263, Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) leads with 31 of 53 prefixes ahead of 4 others. 5 carriers hold prefixes in every one of Montreal’s 3 area codes, while 8 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

696 of Montreal’s 1,273 prefixes (54.7%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility, Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless), TELUS Mobility and Fido Solutions Inc. That makes this a mostly mobile rate centre, which is typical of recent allocations: new prefixes go overwhelmingly to cellphones. 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

Montreal’s dated assignments run from 1999 to 2026. The busiest period was 2020–2024, when 187 prefixes went to 12 carriers. 374 prefixes (29%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. Since 2020 another 224 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Montreal’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Bell Canada, Bell Mobility and Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless): 9 carriers made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Bell Mobility in 1999. The most recent arrivals are Cogeco Connexion Inc. (2024), FGLTEL Inc. (2022) and IXICA Communications Inc. (2017), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Montreal.

With 1,273 prefixes, Montreal has a theoretical pool of 12,730,000 numbers: metropolitan-scale capacity, where running out of free combinations is the very reason overlay area codes exist.

No single carrier dominates Montreal: the leader, Bell Mobility, holds only 23.2% of the prefixes against 22 competitors, a sign of a highly fragmented market where cable companies, mobility brands and VoIP providers weigh as much as the incumbent.

Demand remains steady: 24.9% of the dated prefixes go back to the last ten years, the most active period being 2020–2024. The rate centre is growing at a regular rather than explosive pace.

The register also shows 4 prefixes assigned but not yet in service in Montreal (Bell Mobility): numbers that will start showing up on call displays in the coming months.

374 undated in the register.

Dialling a Montreal number

Montreal is served by 3 overlaid area codes (514, 438 and 263). A 263 number is no more “out of town” than a 514 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Montreal shares area codes 514, 438 and 263 with 6 other rate centres, including Pointe-Claire, Lachine, Ste-Genevieve, Roxboro, Ile-Perrot and -. The largest of them, Pointe-Claire, holds 40 prefixes in 263, 438 and 514; the smallest on the list, -, has just 1.

What a Montreal number tells you

A number attached to Montreal tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Quebec, most often Bell Mobility. It does not tell you where the handset is today: most of Montreal’s prefixes are mobile, and a cellphone keeps its number when its owner moves across the country. 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 Montreal: code 263-222 is recorded for IXICA Communications Inc., so every 263-222-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Montreal, Quebec” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Montreal prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

Showing 400 of 1,273 prefixes, largest rate centres first.

Elsewhere in Quebec