Phone prefixes in Roblin, MB

In numbers

In-service prefixes

10

Telephone numbers covered

100,000

Carriers

9

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

March 7, 2006

Most recent assignment

January 17, 2019

Roblin’s share of its area codes

Within area code 204, Roblin accounts for only 5 of 781 prefixes (0.6%): the code is dominated by Winnipeg and spread over 245 rate centres. Within area code 431, Roblin accounts for only 5 of 571 prefixes (0.9%): the code is dominated by Winnipeg and spread over 146 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

MTS Inc. holds the largest share at 2 prefixes, 20.0% of the total, ahead of 8 other carriers. Code by code: in 204, MTS Inc. leads with 2 of 5 prefixes ahead of 3 others; in 431, Bell Mobility leads with 1 of 5 prefixes ahead of 4 others. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Roblin’s 2 area codes, while 9 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

4 of Roblin’s 10 prefixes (40.0%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility, Fido Solutions Inc, Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) and TELUS Mobility. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by MTS Inc, Bell West Inc, LES.NET (1996) Inc and Provincial Tel 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

Roblin’s dated assignments run from 2006 to 2019. The busiest period was 2015–2019, when 5 prefixes went to 5 carriers. 1 prefixes (10%) 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 Roblin is flat.

Roblin’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to MTS Inc: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) in 2006. The most recent arrivals are Bell West Inc. (2019), LES.NET (1996) Inc. (2017) and Westman Media Cooperative Ltd (2017), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Roblin.

Roblin has only 10 prefixes, or 100,000 numbers: a small rate centre, where the arrival of a single new carrier visibly changes the landscape.

No single carrier dominates Roblin: the leader, MTS Inc., holds only 20.0% of the prefixes against 8 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 1 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Roblin numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

1 undated in the register.

Dialling a Roblin number

Roblin is served by 2 overlaid area codes (204 and 431). A 431 number is no more “out of town” than a 204 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Roblin shares area codes 204 and 431 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Winnipeg, Brandon, Portage La Prairie, Steinbach, Oakbank, Stonewall, Dauphin and Selkirk. The largest of them, Winnipeg, holds 386 prefixes in 204 and 431; the smallest on the list, Austin, has just 9.

What a Roblin number tells you

A number attached to Roblin tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Manitoba, most often MTS Inc.. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 9 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 Manitoba area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Roblin: code 204-247 is recorded for MTS Inc., so every 204-247-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Roblin, Manitoba” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Roblin prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 10 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Manitoba