Phone prefixes in Moonstone, ON

In numbers

In-service prefixes

10

Telephone numbers covered

100,000

Carriers

7

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

August 22, 2012

Most recent assignment

October 17, 2022

Moonstone’s share of its area codes

Within area code 249, Moonstone accounts for only 7 of 585 prefixes (1.2%): the code is dominated by Sudbury and spread over 176 rate centres. Within area code 705, Moonstone accounts for only 3 of 770 prefixes (0.4%): the code is dominated by Barrie and spread over 203 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

TELUS Mobility holds the largest share at 3 prefixes, 30.0% of the total, ahead of 6 other carriers. Code by code: in 249, TELUS Mobility leads with 2 of 7 prefixes ahead of 5 others; in 705, Bell Canada leads with 2 of 3 prefixes ahead of 1 others. 1 carrier holds prefixes in every one of Moonstone’s 2 area codes, while 6 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

3 of Moonstone’s 10 prefixes (30.0%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: TELUS Mobility. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Bell Canada, Distributel, Fibernetics Corporation and ISP Telecom Inc. 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

Moonstone’s dated assignments run from 2012 to 2022. The busiest period was 2015–2019, when 3 prefixes went to 2 carriers. 3 prefixes (30%) 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.

Moonstone’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Bell Canada and TELUS Mobility: these carriers made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to TELUS Integrated Communications in 2012. The most recent arrivals are ISP Telecom Inc. (2022), Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Cable) (2021) and Fibernetics Corporation (2020), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Moonstone.

Moonstone has only 10 prefixes, or 100,000 numbers: a small rate centre, where the arrival of a single new carrier visibly changes the landscape.

No single carrier dominates Moonstone: the leader, TELUS Mobility, holds only 30.0% of the prefixes against 6 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: 42.9% 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.

3 undated in the register.

Dialling a Moonstone number

Moonstone is served by 2 overlaid area codes (249 and 705). A 705 number is no more “out of town” than a 249 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Moonstone shares area codes 249 and 705 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Barrie, Sudbury, Peterborough, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Huntsville, Collingwood and Lindsay. The largest of them, Barrie, holds 92 prefixes in 249 and 705; the smallest on the list, Kirkland Lake, has just 12.

What a Moonstone number tells you

A number attached to Moonstone tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Ontario, most often TELUS Mobility. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 7 carriers present here or to a VoIP service usable anywhere. Nor does it tell you who is calling: caller ID can be spoofed, and an Ontario area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Moonstone: code 249-875 is recorded for TELUS Mobility, so every 249-875-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Moonstone, Ontario” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Moonstone prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 10 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Ontario