Phone prefixes in Orleans, ON

In numbers

In-service prefixes

18

Telephone numbers covered

180,000

Carriers

9

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

June 30, 2000

Most recent assignment

May 13, 2020

Orleans’s share of its area codes

Within area code 613, Orleans accounts for only 10 of 772 prefixes (1.3%): the code is dominated by Ottawa-Hull and spread over 132 rate centres. Within area code 343, Orleans accounts for only 8 of 641 prefixes (1.2%): the code is dominated by Ottawa-Hull and spread over 116 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Bell Canada holds the largest share at 6 prefixes, 33.3% of the total, ahead of 8 other carriers. Code by code: in 613, Bell Canada leads with 6 of 10 prefixes ahead of 2 others; in 343, Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Cable) leads with 2 of 8 prefixes ahead of 6 others. 1 carrier holds prefixes in every one of Orleans’s 2 area codes, while 8 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

None of Orleans’s holders carries a mobility brand in its registered name: all 18 prefixes belong to wireline or wholesale carriers, among them Bell Canada, Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Cable), ISP Telecom Inc and Comwave Networks. A call showing a Orleans number therefore nominally comes from a landline, cable or VoIP platform rather than a locally assigned cellphone.

How the allocation was built up

Orleans’s dated assignments run from 2000 to 2020. The busiest period was 2015–2019, when 5 prefixes went to 5 carriers. 6 prefixes (33%) 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.

Orleans’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Bell Canada: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Cable) in 2000. The most recent arrivals are Fibernetics Corporation (2020), IXICA Communications Inc. (2018) and TELUS Integrated Communications (2017), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Orleans.

Orleans has only 18 prefixes, or 180,000 numbers: a small rate centre, where the arrival of a single new carrier visibly changes the landscape.

No single carrier dominates Orleans: the leader, Bell Canada, holds only 33.3% of the prefixes against 8 competitors, a sign of a highly fragmented market where cable companies, mobility brands and VoIP providers weigh as much as the incumbent.

Allocation is mature: only 8.3% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2015–2019, and 6 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Orleans numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

6 undated in the register.

Dialling a Orleans number

Orleans is served by 2 overlaid area codes (613 and 343). A 343 number is no more “out of town” than a 613 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Orleans shares area codes 613 and 343 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Ottawa-Hull, Kingston, Belleville, Cornwall, Kanata-Stittsville, Brockville, Smiths Falls and Bancroft. The largest of them, Ottawa-Hull, holds 425 prefixes in 343 and 613; the smallest on the list, Cumberland, has just 10.

What a Orleans number tells you

A number attached to Orleans tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Ontario, most often Bell Canada. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 9 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 Ontario area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Orleans: code 613-590 is recorded for Bell Canada, so every 613-590-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Orleans, Ontario” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Orleans prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 18 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Ontario