Phone prefixes in Standard, AB

In numbers

In-service prefixes

4

Telephone numbers covered

40,000

Carriers

4

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

August 15, 2014

Most recent assignment

April 26, 2018

Standard’s share of its area codes

Within area code 587, Standard accounts for only 3 of 779 prefixes (0.4%): the code is dominated by Calgary and spread over 137 rate centres. Within area code 403, Standard accounts for only 1 of 781 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Calgary and spread over 142 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Comwave Networks holds the largest share at 1 prefixes, 25.0% of the total, ahead of 3 other carriers. Code by code: in 587, Comwave Networks leads with 1 of 3 prefixes ahead of 2 others; TELUS is the only holder in 403. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Standard’s 2 area codes, while 4 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

None of Standard’s holders carries a mobility brand in its registered name: all 4 prefixes belong to wireline or wholesale carriers, among them Comwave Networks, Distributel, IXICA Communications Inc and TELUS. A call showing a Standard number therefore nominally comes from a landline, cable or VoIP platform rather than a locally assigned cellphone.

How the allocation was built up

Standard’s dated assignments run from 2014 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 Standard is flat.

Standard’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 Comwave Networks in 2014. The most recent arrivals are IXICA Communications Inc. (2018), Distributel (2016) and Comwave Networks (2014), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Standard.

Standard 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 Standard: the leader, Comwave Networks, 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 Standard numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

1 undated in the register.

Dialling a Standard number

Standard is served by 2 overlaid area codes (587 and 403). A 403 number is no more “out of town” than a 587 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Standard shares area codes 587 and 403 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Fort McMurray, Banff and High River. The largest of them, Calgary, holds 565 prefixes in 403 and 587; the smallest on the list, Crowsnest Pass, has just 10.

What a Standard number tells you

A number attached to Standard tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Alberta, most often Comwave Networks. 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 an Alberta area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Standard: code 587-661 is recorded for Comwave Networks, so every 587-661-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Standard, Alberta” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Standard prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

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

Elsewhere in Alberta