Phone prefixes in Onoway, AB

In numbers

In-service prefixes

2

Telephone numbers covered

20,000

Carriers

2

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

June 7, 2018

Most recent assignment

June 7, 2018

Onoway’s share of its area codes

Within area code 587, Onoway accounts for only 1 of 779 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Calgary and spread over 137 rate centres. Within area code 780, Onoway accounts for only 1 of 780 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Edmonton and spread over 195 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Distributel holds the largest share at 1 prefixes, 50.0% of the total, ahead of 1 other carrier. Code by code: Distributel is the only holder in 587; TELUS is the only holder in 780. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Onoway’s 2 area codes, while 2 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

None of Onoway’s holders carries a mobility brand in its registered name: all 2 prefixes belong to wireline or wholesale carriers, among them Distributel and TELUS. A call showing a Onoway number therefore nominally comes from a landline, cable or VoIP platform rather than a locally assigned cellphone.

How the allocation was built up

Onoway’s dated assignments run from 2018 to 2018. The busiest period was 2015–2019, when 1 prefixes went to 1 carrier. 1 prefixes (50%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. No prefix has been added since 2020: demand for numbers in Onoway is flat.

Onoway’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 2018. The most recent arrivals are Distributel (2018), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Onoway.

Onoway has just 2 prefixes (20,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

Distributel leads with 50.0% of the prefixes, but 1 competitors have set up in Onoway: a market where the incumbent keeps the edge without exclusivity.

Allocation is mature: only 0.0% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2015–2019, and 1 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Onoway numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

Dialling a Onoway number

Onoway is served by 2 overlaid area codes (587 and 780). A 780 number is no more “out of town” than a 587 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Onoway shares area codes 587 and 780 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Edmonton, Calgary, Fort McMurray, Grande Prairie, Sherwood Park, Red Deer, St. Albert and Lloydminster. The largest of them, Edmonton, holds 398 prefixes in 587 and 780; the smallest on the list, Slave Lake, has just 12.

What a Onoway number tells you

A number attached to Onoway tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Alberta, most often Distributel. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 2 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 Onoway: code 587-314 is recorded for Distributel, so every 587-314-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Onoway, Alberta” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Onoway prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 2 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Alberta