Phone prefixes in Perce, QC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

7

Telephone numbers covered

70,000

Carriers

4

Area codes

3

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

December 5, 2002

Most recent assignment

May 21, 2024

Perce’s share of its area codes

Within area code 418, Perce accounts for only 4 of 777 prefixes (0.5%): the code is dominated by Quebec and spread over 258 rate centres. Within area code 581, Perce accounts for only 2 of 778 prefixes (0.3%): the code is dominated by Quebec and spread over 232 rate centres. Within area code 367, Perce accounts for only 1 of 232 prefixes (0.4%): the code is dominated by Quebec and spread over 110 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

TELUS Quebec holds the largest share at 3 prefixes, 42.9% of the total, ahead of 3 other carriers. Code by code: in 418, TELUS Quebec leads with 2 of 4 prefixes ahead of 2 others; in 581, TELUS Quebec leads with 1 of 2 prefixes ahead of 1 others; Iristel Inc. is the only holder in 367. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Perce’s 3 area codes, while 2 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

2 of Perce’s 7 prefixes (28.6%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility and TELUS Mobility. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by TELUS Quebec and Iristel 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

Perce’s dated assignments run from 2002 to 2024. The busiest period was 2005–2009, when 2 prefixes went to 2 carriers. 1 prefixes (14%) 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.

Perce’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to TELUS Quebec: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to TELUS Quebec in 2002. The most recent arrivals are Iristel Inc. (2018), TELUS Mobility (2007) and Bell Mobility (2007), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Perce.

Perce has just 7 prefixes (70,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

TELUS Quebec leads with 42.9% of the prefixes, but 3 competitors have set up in Perce: a market where the incumbent keeps the edge without exclusivity.

Allocation is mature: only 16.7% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2005–2009, and 1 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Perce numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

1 undated in the register.

Dialling a Perce number

Perce is served by 3 overlaid area codes (418, 581 and 367). A 367 number is no more “out of town” than a 418 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Perce shares area codes 418, 581 and 367 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Quebec, Chicoutimi, Alma, Rimouski, Riviere-du-Loup, Thetford Mines, Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce and Levis. The largest of them, Quebec, holds 282 prefixes in 367, 418 and 581; the smallest on the list, Saint-Henri-de-Levis, has just 16.

What a Perce number tells you

A number attached to Perce tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Quebec, most often TELUS Quebec. 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 Quebec area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Perce: code 418-782 is recorded for TELUS Quebec, so every 418-782-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Perce, Quebec” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Perce prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 7 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Quebec