Phone prefixes in Nipawin, SK

In numbers

In-service prefixes

10

Telephone numbers covered

100,000

Carriers

6

Area codes

3

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

November 19, 2010

Most recent assignment

July 19, 2022

Nipawin’s share of its area codes

Within area code 306, Nipawin accounts for only 7 of 777 prefixes (0.9%): the code is dominated by Saskatoon and spread over 228 rate centres. Within area code 639, Nipawin accounts for only 2 of 776 prefixes (0.3%): the code is dominated by Regina and spread over 202 rate centres. Within area code 474, Nipawin accounts for only 1 of 88 prefixes (1.1%): the code is dominated by Saskatoon and spread over 70 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

SaskTel holds the largest share at 5 prefixes, 50.0% of the total, ahead of 5 other carriers. Code by code: in 306, SaskTel leads with 5 of 7 prefixes ahead of 2 others; in 639, Access Communications Co-operative Limited leads with 1 of 2 prefixes ahead of 1 others; TELUS Integrated Communications is the only holder in 474. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Nipawin’s 3 area codes, while 6 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

3 of Nipawin’s 10 prefixes (30.0%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility, SaskTel Mobility and TELUS Mobility. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by SaskTel, Access Communications Co-operative Limited and TELUS Integrated Communications. 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

Nipawin’s dated assignments run from 2010 to 2022. The busiest period was 2010–2014, when 2 prefixes went to 2 carriers. 5 prefixes (50%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. Since 2020 another 1 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Nipawin’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to SaskTel: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to TELUS Mobility in 2010. The most recent arrivals are TELUS Integrated Communications (2022), Access Communications Co-operative Limited (2018) and Bell Mobility (2016), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Nipawin.

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

SaskTel leads with 50.0% of the prefixes, but 5 competitors have set up in Nipawin: a market where the incumbent keeps the edge without exclusivity.

Demand remains steady: 20.0% of the dated prefixes go back to the last ten years, the most active period being 2010–2014. The rate centre is growing at a regular rather than explosive pace.

5 undated in the register.

Dialling a Nipawin number

Nipawin is served by 3 overlaid area codes (306, 639 and 474). A 474 number is no more “out of town” than a 306 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Nipawin shares area codes 306, 639 and 474 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Regina, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw, Prince Albert, North Battleford, Yorkton, Swift Current and Moosomin. The largest of them, Regina, holds 161 prefixes in 306, 474 and 639; the smallest on the list, Watrous, has just 14.

What a Nipawin number tells you

A number attached to Nipawin tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Saskatchewan, most often SaskTel. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 6 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 Saskatchewan area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Nipawin: code 306-276 is recorded for SaskTel, so every 306-276-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Nipawin, Saskatchewan” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Nipawin prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

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

Elsewhere in Saskatchewan