Phone prefixes in New Waterford, NS

In numbers

In-service prefixes

4

Telephone numbers covered

40,000

Carriers

3

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

April 15, 2005

Most recent assignment

June 17, 2019

New Waterford’s share of its area codes

Within area code 902, New Waterford accounts for only 3 of 782 prefixes (0.4%): the code is dominated by Halifax and spread over 175 rate centres. Within area code 782, New Waterford accounts for only 1 of 456 prefixes (0.2%): the code is dominated by Halifax and spread over 142 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Aliant Telecom (NS) holds the largest share at 2 prefixes, 50.0% of the total, ahead of 2 other carriers. Code by code: in 902, Aliant Telecom (NS) leads with 2 of 3 prefixes ahead of 1 others; TELUS Integrated Communications is the only holder in 782. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of New Waterford’s 2 area codes, while 3 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

None of New Waterford’s holders carries a mobility brand in its registered name: all 4 prefixes belong to wireline or wholesale carriers, among them Aliant Telecom (NS), Bragg Communications Inc and TELUS Integrated Communications. A call showing a New Waterford number therefore nominally comes from a landline, cable or VoIP platform rather than a locally assigned cellphone.

How the allocation was built up

New Waterford’s dated assignments run from 2005 to 2019. The busiest period was 2005–2009, when 1 prefixes went to 1 carrier. 2 prefixes (50%) 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 New Waterford is flat.

New Waterford’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Aliant Telecom (NS): this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Bragg Communications Inc. in 2005. The most recent arrivals are TELUS Integrated Communications (2019) and Bragg Communications Inc. (2005), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in New Waterford.

New Waterford has just 4 prefixes (40,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

Aliant Telecom (NS) leads with 50.0% of the prefixes, but 2 competitors have set up in New Waterford: a market where the incumbent keeps the edge without exclusivity.

Allocation is mature: only 0.0% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2005–2009, and 2 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New New Waterford numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

2 undated in the register.

Dialling a New Waterford number

New Waterford 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

New Waterford 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, Musquodoboit Harbour, has just 12.

What a New Waterford number tells you

A number attached to New Waterford tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Nova Scotia, most often Aliant Telecom (NS). 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 Nova Scotia area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for New Waterford: code 902-592 is recorded for Aliant Telecom (NS), so every 902-592-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “New Waterford, Nova Scotia” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every New Waterford prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 4 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Nova Scotia