Phone prefixes in Osoyoos, BC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

6

Telephone numbers covered

60,000

Carriers

4

Area codes

3

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

May 21, 2009

Most recent assignment

November 10, 2016

Osoyoos’s share of its area codes

Within area code 778, Osoyoos accounts for only 4 of 779 prefixes (0.5%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 159 rate centres. Within area code 236, Osoyoos 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, Osoyoos 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 2 prefixes, 33.3% of the total, ahead of 3 other carriers. Code by code: in 778, Distributel leads with 1 of 4 prefixes ahead of 3 others; Distributel is the only holder in 236; TELUS is the only holder in 250. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Osoyoos’s 3 area codes, while 2 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

None of Osoyoos’s holders carries a mobility brand in its registered name: all 6 prefixes belong to wireline or wholesale carriers, among them Distributel, TELUS, Bell West Inc and Bragg Communications Inc. A call showing a Osoyoos number therefore nominally comes from a landline, cable or VoIP platform rather than a locally assigned cellphone.

How the allocation was built up

Osoyoos’s dated assignments run from 2009 to 2016. The busiest period was 2010–2014, when 2 prefixes went to 2 carriers. 1 prefixes (17%) 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 Osoyoos is flat.

Osoyoos’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 Bragg Communications Inc. in 2009. The most recent arrivals are TELUS (2016), Bell West Inc. (2014) and Distributel (2012), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Osoyoos.

Osoyoos has just 6 prefixes (60,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

No single carrier dominates Osoyoos: the leader, Distributel, holds only 33.3% 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.

Allocation is mature: only 0.0% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2010–2014, and 1 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Osoyoos numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

1 undated in the register.

Dialling a Osoyoos number

Osoyoos is served by 3 overlaid area codes (778, 236 and 250). A 250 number is no more “out of town” than a 778 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Osoyoos shares area codes 778, 236 and 250 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna, New Westminster, Nanaimo, South Kamloops, Prince George and Abbotsford. The largest of them, Vancouver, holds 314 prefixes in 236 and 778; the smallest on the list, North Vancouver, has just 21.

What a Osoyoos number tells you

A number attached to Osoyoos 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 Osoyoos: code 778-739 is recorded for Distributel, so every 778-739-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Osoyoos, British Columbia” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Osoyoos prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 6 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in British Columbia