Phone prefixes in Sandspit, BC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

2

Telephone numbers covered

20,000

Carriers

2

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

February 10, 2010

Most recent assignment

February 10, 2010

Sandspit’s share of its area codes

Within area code 250, Sandspit accounts for only 1 of 781 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Victoria and spread over 268 rate centres. Within area code 778, Sandspit 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

TELUS holds the largest share at 1 prefixes, 50.0% of the total, ahead of 1 other carrier. Code by code: TELUS is the only holder in 250; TELUS Mobility is the only holder in 778. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Sandspit’s 2 area codes, while 2 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

1 of Sandspit’s 2 prefixes (50.0%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: TELUS Mobility. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by 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

Sandspit’s dated assignments run from 2010 to 2010. The busiest period was 2010–2014, when 1 prefixes went to 1 carrier. 1 prefixes (50%) 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 Sandspit is flat.

Sandspit’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to TELUS: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to TELUS Mobility in 2010. The most recent arrivals are TELUS Mobility (2010), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Sandspit.

Sandspit has just 2 prefixes (20,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

TELUS leads with 50.0% of the prefixes, but 1 competitors have set up in Sandspit: 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 1 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Sandspit numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

Dialling a Sandspit number

Sandspit is served by 2 overlaid area codes (250 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

Sandspit shares area codes 250 and 778 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna, New Westminster, Nanaimo, South Kamloops, Prince George and Vernon. The largest of them, Vancouver, holds 172 prefixes in 778; the smallest on the list, Parksville, has just 16.

What a Sandspit number tells you

A number attached to Sandspit tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in British Columbia, most often TELUS. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 2 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 Sandspit: code 250-637 is recorded for TELUS, so every 250-637-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Sandspit, British Columbia” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Sandspit prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 2 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in British Columbia