Phone prefixes in New Westminster, BC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

126

Telephone numbers covered

1,260,000

Carriers

16

Area codes

5

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

August 26, 1999

Most recent assignment

August 5, 2025

New Westminster’s share of its area codes

Within area code 604, New Westminster accounts for only 65 of 781 prefixes (8.3%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 44 rate centres. Within area code 778, New Westminster accounts for only 46 of 779 prefixes (5.9%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 159 rate centres. Within area code 236, New Westminster accounts for only 11 of 745 prefixes (1.5%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 269 rate centres. Within area code 672, New Westminster accounts for only 3 of 321 prefixes (0.9%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 109 rate centres. Within area code 257, New Westminster accounts for only 1 of 18 prefixes (5.6%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 15 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) holds the largest share at 35 prefixes, 27.8% of the total, ahead of 15 other carriers. Code by code: in 604, Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) leads with 19 of 65 prefixes ahead of 10 others; in 778, Fido Solutions Inc. leads with 15 of 46 prefixes ahead of 13 others; in 236, Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) leads with 3 of 11 prefixes ahead of 6 others; in 672, TELUS Mobility leads with 1 of 3 prefixes ahead of 2 others; TELUS Mobility is the only holder in 257. 1 carrier holds prefixes in every one of New Westminster’s 5 area codes, while 4 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

72 of New Westminster’s 126 prefixes (57.1%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless), Fido Solutions Inc, TELUS Mobility and Bell Mobility. 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

New Westminster’s dated assignments run from 1999 to 2025. The busiest period was 2000–2004, when 32 prefixes went to 7 carriers. 41 prefixes (33%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. Since 2020 another 8 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

New Westminster’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to TELUS, Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) and TELUS Mobility: 4 carriers made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) in 1999. The most recent arrivals are IXICA Communications Inc. (2018), Primus Telecommunications Canada Inc. (2016) and ISP Telecom Inc. (2010), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in New Westminster.

Its 126 prefixes stand for 1,260,000 possible numbers: New Westminster is a large rate centre, the kind that hosts several switching offices and a sizeable business clientele.

No single carrier dominates New Westminster: the leader, Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless), holds only 27.8% of the prefixes against 15 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 9.4% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2000–2004, and 41 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New New Westminster numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

41 undated in the register.

Dialling a New Westminster number

New Westminster is served by 5 overlaid area codes (604, 778, 236, 672 and 257). A 257 number is no more “out of town” than a 604 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

New Westminster shares area codes 604, 778, 236, 672 and 257 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Vancouver, Abbotsford, Victoria, Richmond, North Vancouver, Aldergrove, Newton and Kelowna. The largest of them, Vancouver, holds 743 prefixes in 236, 257, 604, 672 and 778; the smallest on the list, Port Moody, has just 22.

What a New Westminster number tells you

A number attached to New Westminster tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in British Columbia, most often Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless). It does not tell you where the handset is today: most of New Westminster’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 British Columbia area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for New Westminster: code 604-306 is recorded for Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless), so every 604-306-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “New Westminster, British Columbia” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every New Westminster prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 126 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in British Columbia