Phone prefixes in Prince Rupert, BC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

5

Telephone numbers covered

50,000

Carriers

3

Area codes

3

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

May 6, 2014

Most recent assignment

September 27, 2018

Prince Rupert’s share of its area codes

Within area code 250, Prince Rupert accounts for only 3 of 781 prefixes (0.4%): the code is dominated by Victoria and spread over 268 rate centres. Within area code 236, Prince Rupert accounts for only 1 of 730 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 269 rate centres. Within area code 778, Prince Rupert accounts for only 1 of 779 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 159 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

City West Cable and Telephone Corp. holds the largest share at 3 prefixes, 60.0% of the total, ahead of 2 other carriers. Code by code: City West Cable and Telephone Corp. is the only holder in 250; Videotron Ltd. is the only holder in 236; Bell Mobility is the only holder in 778. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Prince Rupert’s 3 area codes, while 3 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

1 of Prince Rupert’s 5 prefixes (20.0%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by City West Cable and Telephone Corp and Videotron Ltd. 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 Rupert’s dated assignments run from 2014 to 2018. The busiest period was 2010–2014, when 1 prefixes went to 1 carrier. 3 prefixes (60%) 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 Prince Rupert is flat.

Prince Rupert’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to City West Cable and Telephone Corp: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Bell Mobility in 2014. The most recent arrivals are Videotron Ltd. (2018) and Bell Mobility (2014), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Prince Rupert.

Prince Rupert has just 5 prefixes (50,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

City West Cable and Telephone Corp. leads with 60.0% of the prefixes, but 2 competitors have set up in Prince Rupert: a market where the incumbent keeps the edge without exclusivity.

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 3 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Prince Rupert numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

3 undated in the register.

Dialling a Prince Rupert number

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

The numbering neighbourhood

Prince Rupert shares area codes 250, 236 and 778 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 Prince Rupert number tells you

A number attached to Prince Rupert tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in British Columbia, most often City West Cable and Telephone Corp.. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 3 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 Prince Rupert: code 250-622 is recorded for City West Cable and Telephone Corp., so every 250-622-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Prince Rupert, British Columbia” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Prince Rupert prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 5 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in British Columbia