Phone prefixes in Red Rock

In numbers

In-service prefixes

5

Telephone numbers covered

50,000

Carriers

5

Area codes

4

Provinces and territories

2

First assignment

May 13, 2016

Most recent assignment

November 19, 2019

Provinces and territories

This name is used for separate rate centres in 2 provinces. The prefixes below share a name in the CNAC register but belong to different communities.

• British Columbia — 3 prefixes
• Ontario — 2 prefixes

Red Rock’s share of its area codes

Within area code 807, Red Rock accounts for only 2 of 293 prefixes (0.7%): the code is dominated by Thunder Bay and spread over 85 rate centres. Within area code 236, Red Rock 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, Red Rock accounts for only 1 of 781 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Victoria and spread over 268 rate centres. Within area code 672, Red Rock 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

Bell Canada holds the largest share at 1 prefixes, 20.0% of the total, ahead of 4 other carriers. Code by code: in 807, Bell Canada leads with 1 of 2 prefixes ahead of 1 others; Navigata Communications Limited is the only holder in 236; TELUS is the only holder in 250; TELUS Mobility is the only holder in 672. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Red Rock’s 4 area codes, while 5 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

1 of Red Rock’s 5 prefixes (20.0%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: TELUS Mobility. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Bell Canada, Navigata Communications Limited, Shaw Telecom Inc and TELUS. 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

Red Rock’s dated assignments run from 2016 to 2019. The busiest period was 2015–2019, when 3 prefixes went to 3 carriers. 2 prefixes (40%) 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 Red Rock is flat.

Red Rock’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Bell Canada and TELUS: these carriers made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Navigata Communications Limited in 2016. The most recent arrivals are TELUS Mobility (2019), Shaw Telecom Inc. (2019) and Navigata Communications Limited (2016), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Red Rock.

Red Rock 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.

No single carrier dominates Red Rock: the leader, Bell Canada, holds only 20.0% of the prefixes against 4 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 2015–2019, and 2 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Red Rock numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

Dialling a Red Rock number

Red Rock is served by 4 overlaid area codes (807, 236, 250 and 672). A 672 number is no more “out of town” than a 807 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Red Rock shares area codes 807, 236, 250 and 672 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Vancouver, Victoria, Thunder Bay, Kelowna, Abbotsford, Nanaimo, Prince George and South Kamloops. The largest of them, Vancouver, holds 225 prefixes in 236 and 672; the smallest on the list, Campbell River, has just 16.

What a Red Rock number tells you

A number attached to Red Rock tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in British Columbia, most often Bell Canada. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 5 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 Red Rock: code 807-886 is recorded for Bell Canada, so every 807-886-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Red Rock, British Columbia” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Red Rock prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

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

Elsewhere in British Columbia