Phone prefixes in Okotoks, AB

In numbers

In-service prefixes

15

Telephone numbers covered

150,000

Carriers

8

Area codes

3

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

May 6, 2005

Most recent assignment

May 23, 2023

Okotoks’s share of its area codes

Within area code 403, Okotoks accounts for only 7 of 781 prefixes (0.9%): the code is dominated by Calgary and spread over 142 rate centres. Within area code 587, Okotoks accounts for only 5 of 779 prefixes (0.6%): the code is dominated by Calgary and spread over 137 rate centres. Within area code 825, Okotoks accounts for only 3 of 769 prefixes (0.4%): the code is dominated by Calgary and spread over 301 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

TELUS holds the largest share at 4 prefixes, 26.7% of the total, ahead of 7 other carriers. Code by code: in 403, TELUS leads with 2 of 7 prefixes ahead of 4 others; in 587, TELUS leads with 2 of 5 prefixes ahead of 3 others; in 825, Fibernetics Corporation leads with 2 of 3 prefixes ahead of 1 others. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Okotoks’s 3 area codes, while 5 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

None of Okotoks’s holders carries a mobility brand in its registered name: all 15 prefixes belong to wireline or wholesale carriers, among them TELUS, Shaw Telecom Inc, Distributel and Fibernetics Corporation. A call showing a Okotoks number therefore nominally comes from a landline, cable or VoIP platform rather than a locally assigned cellphone.

How the allocation was built up

Okotoks’s dated assignments run from 2005 to 2023. The busiest period was 2010–2014, when 4 prefixes went to 3 carriers. 3 prefixes (20%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. Since 2020 another 3 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Okotoks’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to TELUS and Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Cable): these carriers made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Bell West Inc. in 2005. The most recent arrivals are ISP Telecom Inc. (2021), Fibernetics Corporation (2020) and IXICA Communications Inc. (2018), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Okotoks.

Okotoks has only 15 prefixes, or 150,000 numbers: a small rate centre, where the arrival of a single new carrier visibly changes the landscape.

No single carrier dominates Okotoks: the leader, TELUS, holds only 26.7% of the prefixes against 7 competitors, a sign of a highly fragmented market where cable companies, mobility brands and VoIP providers weigh as much as the incumbent.

Demand remains steady: 25.0% 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.

3 undated in the register.

Dialling a Okotoks number

Okotoks is served by 3 overlaid area codes (403, 587 and 825). A 825 number is no more “out of town” than a 403 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Okotoks shares area codes 403, 587 and 825 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Fort McMurray, High River and Banff. The largest of them, Calgary, holds 711 prefixes in 403, 587 and 825; the smallest on the list, Fox Creek, has just 14.

What a Okotoks number tells you

A number attached to Okotoks tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Alberta, most often TELUS. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 8 carriers present here or to a VoIP service usable anywhere. Nor does it tell you who is calling: caller ID can be spoofed, and an Alberta area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Okotoks: code 403-938 is recorded for TELUS, so every 403-938-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Okotoks, Alberta” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Okotoks prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 15 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Alberta