Phone prefixes in Ocean Falls, BC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

4

Telephone numbers covered

40,000

Carriers

4

Area codes

3

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

March 30, 2016

Most recent assignment

October 25, 2021

Ocean Falls’s share of its area codes

Within area code 672, Ocean Falls accounts for only 2 of 320 prefixes (0.6%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 108 rate centres. Within area code 236, Ocean Falls accounts for only 1 of 730 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 269 rate centres. Within area code 250, Ocean Falls accounts for only 1 of 781 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Victoria and spread over 268 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Distributel holds the largest share at 1 prefixes, 25.0% of the total, ahead of 3 other carriers. Code by code: in 672, Fibernetics Corporation leads with 1 of 2 prefixes ahead of 1 others; Distributel is the only holder in 236; TELUS is the only holder in 250. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Ocean Falls’s 3 area codes, while 4 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

None of Ocean Falls’s holders carries a mobility brand in its registered name: all 4 prefixes belong to wireline or wholesale carriers, among them Distributel, Fibernetics Corporation, ISP Telecom Inc and TELUS. A call showing a Ocean Falls number therefore nominally comes from a landline, cable or VoIP platform rather than a locally assigned cellphone.

How the allocation was built up

Ocean Falls’s dated assignments run from 2016 to 2021. The busiest period was 2020–2024, when 2 prefixes went to 2 carriers. 1 prefixes (25%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. Since 2020 another 2 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Ocean Falls’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to TELUS: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Distributel in 2016. The most recent arrivals are Fibernetics Corporation (2021), ISP Telecom Inc. (2021) and Distributel (2016), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Ocean Falls.

Ocean Falls 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.

No single carrier dominates Ocean Falls: the leader, Distributel, holds only 25.0% of the prefixes against 3 competitors, a sign of a highly fragmented market where cable companies, mobility brands and VoIP providers weigh as much as the incumbent.

Growth is recent: 66.7% of the dated prefixes were assigned in the last ten years, peaking in 2020–2024. Ocean Falls is among the rate centres where demand for numbers is still rising quickly.

1 undated in the register.

Dialling a Ocean Falls number

Ocean Falls is served by 3 overlaid area codes (672, 236 and 250). A 250 number is no more “out of town” than a 672 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Ocean Falls shares area codes 672, 236 and 250 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna, Abbotsford, Nanaimo, Prince George, South Kamloops and Vernon. The largest of them, Vancouver, holds 225 prefixes in 236 and 672; the smallest on the list, New Westminster, has just 14.

What a Ocean Falls number tells you

A number attached to Ocean Falls tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in British Columbia, most often Distributel. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 4 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 British Columbia area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Ocean Falls: code 236-922 is recorded for Distributel, so every 236-922-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Ocean Falls, British Columbia” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Ocean Falls prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

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

Elsewhere in British Columbia