Phone prefixes in Sardis, BC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

12

Telephone numbers covered

120,000

Carriers

6

Area codes

3

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

June 5, 2001

Most recent assignment

July 7, 2022

Sardis’s share of its area codes

Within area code 604, Sardis accounts for only 7 of 781 prefixes (0.9%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 44 rate centres. Within area code 236, Sardis accounts for only 3 of 730 prefixes (0.4%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 269 rate centres. Within area code 778, Sardis accounts for only 2 of 779 prefixes (0.3%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 159 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

TELUS holds the largest share at 5 prefixes, 41.7% of the total, ahead of 5 other carriers. Code by code: in 604, TELUS leads with 4 of 7 prefixes ahead of 1 others; in 236, Distributel leads with 1 of 3 prefixes ahead of 2 others; in 778, TELUS leads with 1 of 2 prefixes ahead of 1 others. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Sardis’s 3 area codes, while 5 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

None of Sardis’s holders carries a mobility brand in its registered name: all 12 prefixes belong to wireline or wholesale carriers, among them TELUS, Shaw Telecom Inc, Bell West Inc and Distributel. A call showing a Sardis number therefore nominally comes from a landline, cable or VoIP platform rather than a locally assigned cellphone.

How the allocation was built up

Sardis’s dated assignments run from 2001 to 2022. The busiest period was 2005–2009, when 3 prefixes went to 2 carriers. 2 prefixes (17%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. Since 2020 another 2 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Sardis’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 in 2001. The most recent arrivals are Fibernetics Corporation (2022), ISP Telecom Inc. (2022) and Distributel (2016), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Sardis.

Sardis has only 12 prefixes, or 120,000 numbers: a small rate centre, where the arrival of a single new carrier visibly changes the landscape.

TELUS leads with 41.7% of the prefixes, but 5 competitors have set up in Sardis: a market where the incumbent keeps the edge without exclusivity.

Demand remains steady: 20.0% of the dated prefixes go back to the last ten years, the most active period being 2005–2009. The rate centre is growing at a regular rather than explosive pace.

2 undated in the register.

Dialling a Sardis number

Sardis is served by 3 overlaid area codes (604, 236 and 778). A 778 number is no more “out of town” than a 604 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Sardis shares area codes 604, 236 and 778 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Vancouver, New Westminster, Richmond, Abbotsford, Victoria, Aldergrove, North Vancouver and Newton. The largest of them, Vancouver, holds 657 prefixes in 236, 604 and 778; the smallest on the list, Nanaimo, has just 19.

What a Sardis number tells you

A number attached to Sardis 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 6 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 Sardis: code 604-824 is recorded for TELUS, so every 604-824-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Sardis, British Columbia” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Sardis prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 12 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in British Columbia