Phone prefixes in Mutton Bay, QC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

3

Telephone numbers covered

30,000

Carriers

3

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

October 17, 2012

Most recent assignment

September 9, 2019

Mutton Bay’s share of its area codes

Within area code 581, Mutton Bay accounts for only 2 of 778 prefixes (0.3%): the code is dominated by Quebec and spread over 232 rate centres. Within area code 418, Mutton Bay 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 Mobility holds the largest share at 1 prefixes, 33.3% of the total, ahead of 2 other carriers. Code by code: in 581, Telecommunications Xittel Inc leads with 1 of 2 prefixes ahead of 1 others; TELUS Quebec is the only holder in 418. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Mutton Bay’s 2 area codes, while 3 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

1 of Mutton Bay’s 3 prefixes (33.3%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: TELUS Mobility. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by TELUS Quebec and Telecommunications Xittel 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

Mutton Bay’s dated assignments run from 2012 to 2019. The busiest period was 2010–2014, when 1 prefixes went to 1 carrier. 1 prefixes (33%) 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 Mutton Bay is flat.

Mutton Bay’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to TELUS Quebec: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Telecommunications Xittel Inc in 2012. The most recent arrivals are TELUS Mobility (2019) and Telecommunications Xittel Inc (2012), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Mutton Bay.

Mutton Bay has just 3 prefixes (30,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

No single carrier dominates Mutton Bay: the leader, TELUS Mobility, holds only 33.3% of the prefixes against 2 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 0.0% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2010–2014, and 1 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Mutton Bay numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

1 undated in the register.

Dialling a Mutton Bay number

Mutton Bay 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

Mutton Bay 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 Mutton Bay number tells you

A number attached to Mutton Bay tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Quebec, 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 3 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 Mutton Bay: code 581-289 is recorded for Telecommunications Xittel Inc, so every 581-289-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Mutton Bay, Quebec” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Mutton Bay prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 3 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Quebec