Phone prefixes in Sicamous, BC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

3

Telephone numbers covered

30,000

Carriers

3

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

August 31, 2016

Most recent assignment

November 13, 2017

Sicamous’s share of its area codes

Within area code 236, Sicamous accounts for only 2 of 730 prefixes (0.3%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 269 rate centres. Within area code 250, Sicamous accounts for only 1 of 781 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Victoria and spread over 268 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Bell West Inc. holds the largest share at 1 prefixes, 33.3% of the total, ahead of 2 other carriers. Code by code: in 236, Bell West Inc. leads with 1 of 2 prefixes ahead of 1 others; TELUS is the only holder in 250. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Sicamous’s 2 area codes, while 3 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

None of Sicamous’s holders carries a mobility brand in its registered name: all 3 prefixes belong to wireline or wholesale carriers, among them Bell West Inc, Shaw Telecom Inc and TELUS. A call showing a Sicamous number therefore nominally comes from a landline, cable or VoIP platform rather than a locally assigned cellphone.

How the allocation was built up

Sicamous’s dated assignments run from 2016 to 2017. The busiest period was 2015–2019, when 2 prefixes went to 2 carriers. 1 prefixes (33%) 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 Sicamous is flat.

Sicamous’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 Shaw Telecom Inc. in 2016. The most recent arrivals are Bell West Inc. (2017) and Shaw Telecom Inc. (2016), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Sicamous.

Sicamous has just 3 prefixes (30,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

No single carrier dominates Sicamous: the leader, Bell West Inc., holds only 33.3% of the prefixes against 2 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 Sicamous numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

Dialling a Sicamous number

Sicamous is served by 2 overlaid area codes (236 and 250). A 250 number is no more “out of town” than a 236 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Sicamous shares area codes 236 and 250 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna, Nanaimo, South Kamloops, Prince George, Vernon and Penticton. The largest of them, Vancouver, holds 142 prefixes in 236; the smallest on the list, New Westminster, has just 11.

What a Sicamous number tells you

A number attached to Sicamous tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in British Columbia, most often Bell West Inc.. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 3 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 Sicamous: code 236-346 is recorded for Bell West Inc., so every 236-346-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Sicamous, British Columbia” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Sicamous prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 3 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in British Columbia