Phone prefixes in Prince Albert, SK

In numbers

In-service prefixes

29

Telephone numbers covered

290,000

Carriers

10

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

July 22, 1999

Most recent assignment

January 8, 2024

Prince Albert’s share of its area codes

Within area code 306, Prince Albert accounts for only 19 of 777 prefixes (2.4%): the code is dominated by Saskatoon and spread over 228 rate centres. Within area code 639, Prince Albert accounts for only 10 of 776 prefixes (1.3%): the code is dominated by Regina and spread over 202 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

SaskTel Mobility holds the largest share at 10 prefixes, 34.5% of the total, ahead of 9 other carriers. Code by code: in 306, SaskTel Mobility leads with 7 of 19 prefixes ahead of 6 others; in 639, SaskTel Mobility leads with 3 of 10 prefixes ahead of 5 others. 3 carriers hold prefixes in every one of Prince Albert’s 2 area codes, while 7 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

17 of Prince Albert’s 29 prefixes (58.6%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: SaskTel Mobility, TELUS Mobility, Bell Mobility, Fido Solutions Inc and Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless). That makes this a mostly mobile rate centre, which is typical of recent allocations: new prefixes go overwhelmingly to cellphones. 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

Prince Albert’s dated assignments run from 1999 to 2024. The busiest period was 2005–2009, when 7 prefixes went to 4 carriers. 7 prefixes (24%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. Since 2020 another 3 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Prince Albert’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to SaskTel and SaskTel Mobility: these carriers made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to SaskTel Mobility in 1999. The most recent arrivals are Access Communications Co-operative Limited (2018), Bell West Inc. (2016) and Bell Mobility (2016), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Prince Albert.

Prince Albert has only 29 prefixes, or 290,000 numbers: a small rate centre, where the arrival of a single new carrier visibly changes the landscape.

No single carrier dominates Prince Albert: the leader, SaskTel Mobility, holds only 34.5% of the prefixes against 9 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 13.6% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2005–2009, and 7 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Prince Albert numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

7 undated in the register.

Dialling a Prince Albert number

Prince Albert is served by 2 overlaid area codes (306 and 639). A 639 number is no more “out of town” than a 306 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Prince Albert shares area codes 306 and 639 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Regina, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw, North Battleford, Yorkton, Swift Current, Moosomin and Outlook. The largest of them, Regina, holds 157 prefixes in 306 and 639; the smallest on the list, Watrous, has just 12.

What a Prince Albert number tells you

A number attached to Prince Albert tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Saskatchewan, most often SaskTel Mobility. It does not tell you where the handset is today: most of Prince Albert’s prefixes are mobile, and a cellphone keeps its number when its owner moves across the country. Nor does it tell you who is calling: caller ID can be spoofed, and a Saskatchewan area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Prince Albert: code 306-930 is recorded for SaskTel Mobility, so every 306-930-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Prince Albert, Saskatchewan” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Prince Albert prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 29 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Saskatchewan