Phone prefixes in Saint-Ubalde, QC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

4

Telephone numbers covered

40,000

Carriers

4

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

September 19, 2008

Most recent assignment

May 30, 2018

Saint-Ubalde’s share of its area codes

Within area code 581, Saint-Ubalde accounts for only 3 of 778 prefixes (0.4%): the code is dominated by Quebec and spread over 232 rate centres. Within area code 418, Saint-Ubalde accounts for only 1 of 777 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Quebec and spread over 258 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Bell Canada holds the largest share at 1 prefixes, 25.0% of the total, ahead of 3 other carriers. Code by code: in 581, Bell Canada leads with 1 of 3 prefixes ahead of 2 others; TELUS Quebec is the only holder in 418. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Saint-Ubalde’s 2 area codes, while 4 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

None of Saint-Ubalde’s holders carries a mobility brand in its registered name: all 4 prefixes belong to wireline or wholesale carriers, among them Bell Canada, TELUS Quebec, Telecommunications Xittel Inc and Videotron Ltd. A call showing a Saint-Ubalde number therefore nominally comes from a landline, cable or VoIP platform rather than a locally assigned cellphone.

How the allocation was built up

Saint-Ubalde’s dated assignments run from 2008 to 2018. The busiest period was 2015–2019, when 2 prefixes went to 2 carriers. 1 prefixes (25%) 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 Saint-Ubalde is flat.

Saint-Ubalde’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to TELUS Quebec: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Telecommunications Xittel Inc in 2008. The most recent arrivals are Bell Canada (2018), Videotron Ltd. (2018) and Telecommunications Xittel Inc (2008), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Saint-Ubalde.

Saint-Ubalde has just 4 prefixes (40,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

No single carrier dominates Saint-Ubalde: the leader, Bell Canada, holds only 25.0% of the prefixes against 3 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 Saint-Ubalde numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

1 undated in the register.

Dialling a Saint-Ubalde number

Saint-Ubalde is served by 2 overlaid area codes (581 and 418). A 418 number is no more “out of town” than a 581 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Saint-Ubalde shares area codes 581 and 418 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Quebec, Chicoutimi, Rimouski, Alma, Riviere-du-Loup, Thetford Mines, Levis and Saint-Georges-de-Beauce. The largest of them, Quebec, holds 245 prefixes in 418 and 581; the smallest on the list, Chibougamau, has just 11.

What a Saint-Ubalde number tells you

A number attached to Saint-Ubalde tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Quebec, 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 4 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 Quebec area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Saint-Ubalde: code 581-795 is recorded for Bell Canada, so every 581-795-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Saint-Ubalde, Quebec” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Saint-Ubalde prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 4 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Quebec