Phone prefixes in Pitt Meadows, BC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

13

Telephone numbers covered

130,000

Carriers

7

Area codes

4

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

August 31, 2007

Most recent assignment

September 14, 2021

Pitt Meadows’s share of its area codes

Within area code 604, Pitt Meadows accounts for only 6 of 781 prefixes (0.8%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 44 rate centres. Within area code 236, Pitt Meadows accounts for only 3 of 730 prefixes (0.4%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 269 rate centres. Within area code 778, Pitt Meadows accounts for only 3 of 779 prefixes (0.4%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 159 rate centres. Within area code 672, Pitt Meadows accounts for only 1 of 320 prefixes (0.3%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 108 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Shaw Telecom Inc. holds the largest share at 4 prefixes, 30.8% of the total, ahead of 6 other carriers. Code by code: in 604, Shaw Telecom Inc. leads with 3 of 6 prefixes ahead of 1 others; in 236, Shaw Telecom Inc. leads with 1 of 3 prefixes ahead of 2 others; in 778, TELUS leads with 1 of 3 prefixes ahead of 2 others; Fibernetics Corporation is the only holder in 672. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Pitt Meadows’s 4 area codes, while 5 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

None of Pitt Meadows’s holders carries a mobility brand in its registered name: all 13 prefixes belong to wireline or wholesale carriers, among them Shaw Telecom Inc, TELUS, Bell West Inc and Distributel. A call showing a Pitt Meadows number therefore nominally comes from a landline, cable or VoIP platform rather than a locally assigned cellphone.

How the allocation was built up

Pitt Meadows’s dated assignments run from 2007 to 2021. The busiest period was 2015–2019, when 4 prefixes went to 4 carriers. 2 prefixes (15%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. Since 2020 another 2 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Pitt Meadows’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 Shaw Telecom Inc. in 2007. The most recent arrivals are ISP Telecom Inc. (2021), Fibernetics Corporation (2020) and IXICA Communications Inc. (2018), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Pitt Meadows.

Pitt Meadows has only 13 prefixes, or 130,000 numbers: a small rate centre, where the arrival of a single new carrier visibly changes the landscape.

No single carrier dominates Pitt Meadows: the leader, Shaw Telecom Inc., holds only 30.8% of the prefixes against 6 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 18.2% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2015–2019, and 2 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Pitt Meadows numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

2 undated in the register.

Dialling a Pitt Meadows number

Pitt Meadows is served by 4 overlaid area codes (604, 236, 778 and 672). A 672 number is no more “out of town” than a 604 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Pitt Meadows shares area codes 604, 236, 778 and 672 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Vancouver, New Westminster, Abbotsford, Victoria, Richmond, North Vancouver, Aldergrove and Newton. The largest of them, Vancouver, holds 740 prefixes in 236, 604, 672 and 778; the smallest on the list, Nanaimo, has just 22.

What a Pitt Meadows number tells you

A number attached to Pitt Meadows tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in British Columbia, most often Shaw Telecom Inc.. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 7 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 Pitt Meadows: code 604-457 is recorded for Shaw Telecom Inc., so every 604-457-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Pitt Meadows, British Columbia” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Pitt Meadows prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 13 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in British Columbia