Phone prefixes in Olds, AB

In numbers

In-service prefixes

16

Telephone numbers covered

160,000

Carriers

10

Area codes

3

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

July 18, 2001

Most recent assignment

August 23, 2022

Olds’s share of its area codes

Within area code 403, Olds accounts for only 9 of 781 prefixes (1.2%): the code is dominated by Calgary and spread over 142 rate centres. Within area code 825, Olds accounts for only 4 of 769 prefixes (0.5%): the code is dominated by Calgary and spread over 301 rate centres. Within area code 587, Olds accounts for only 3 of 779 prefixes (0.4%): the code is dominated by Calgary and spread over 137 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Iristel Inc. holds the largest share at 3 prefixes, 18.8% of the total, ahead of 9 other carriers. Code by code: in 403, TELUS leads with 3 of 9 prefixes ahead of 5 others; in 825, Iristel Inc. leads with 2 of 4 prefixes ahead of 2 others; in 587, Iristel Inc. leads with 1 of 3 prefixes ahead of 2 others. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Olds’s 3 area codes, while 8 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

5 of Olds’s 16 prefixes (31.3%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: TELUS Mobility, Bell Mobility, Fido Solutions Inc and Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless). Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Iristel Inc, TELUS, Distributel and Bell West Inc. 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

Olds’s dated assignments run from 2001 to 2022. The busiest period was 2005–2009, when 4 prefixes went to 4 carriers. 3 prefixes (19%) 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.

Olds’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to TELUS and TELUS Mobility: these carriers made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to TELUS in 2001. The most recent arrivals are ISP Telecom Inc. (2022), Iristel Inc. (2016) and Bell West Inc. (2013), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Olds.

Olds has only 16 prefixes, or 160,000 numbers: a small rate centre, where the arrival of a single new carrier visibly changes the landscape.

No single carrier dominates Olds: the leader, Iristel Inc., holds only 18.8% of the prefixes against 9 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: 23.1% of the dated prefixes go back to the last ten years, the most active period being 2005–2009. The rate centre is growing at a regular rather than explosive pace.

3 undated in the register.

Dialling a Olds number

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

The numbering neighbourhood

Olds shares area codes 403, 825 and 587 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 Olds number tells you

A number attached to Olds tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Alberta, most often Iristel Inc.. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 10 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 Olds: code 825-862 is recorded for Iristel Inc., so every 825-862-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Olds, Alberta” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Olds prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 16 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Alberta