Phone prefixes in Sprague, MB

In numbers

In-service prefixes

2

Telephone numbers covered

20,000

Carriers

2

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

March 6, 2017

Most recent assignment

March 6, 2017

Sprague’s share of its area codes

Within area code 204, Sprague accounts for only 1 of 781 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Winnipeg and spread over 245 rate centres. Within area code 431, Sprague accounts for only 1 of 571 prefixes (0.2%): the code is dominated by Winnipeg and spread over 146 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Bell Mobility holds the largest share at 1 prefixes, 50.0% of the total, ahead of 1 other carrier. Code by code: MTS Inc. is the only holder in 204; Bell Mobility is the only holder in 431. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Sprague’s 2 area codes, while 2 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

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

Sprague’s dated assignments run from 2017 to 2017. The busiest period was 2015–2019, 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 Sprague is flat.

Sprague’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 Bell Mobility in 2017. The most recent arrivals are Bell Mobility (2017), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Sprague.

Sprague 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.

Bell Mobility leads with 50.0% of the prefixes, but 1 competitors have set up in Sprague: 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 2015–2019, and 1 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Sprague numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

Dialling a Sprague number

Sprague 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

Sprague 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, The Pas, has just 10.

What a Sprague number tells you

A number attached to Sprague tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Manitoba, most often Bell Mobility. 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 Manitoba area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Sprague: code 431-287 is recorded for Bell Mobility, so every 431-287-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Sprague, Manitoba” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Sprague prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

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

Elsewhere in Manitoba