Phone prefixes in Sudbury, ON

In numbers

In-service prefixes

75

Telephone numbers covered

750,000

Carriers

16

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

October 14, 1999

Most recent assignment

October 13, 2025

Sudbury’s share of its area codes

Within area code 705, Sudbury accounts for only 50 of 770 prefixes (6.5%): the code is dominated by Barrie and spread over 203 rate centres. Within area code 249, Sudbury accounts for only 25 of 585 prefixes (4.3%): the code is dominated by Sudbury and spread over 176 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Bell Canada holds the largest share at 21 prefixes, 28.0% of the total, ahead of 15 other carriers. Code by code: in 705, Bell Canada leads with 20 of 50 prefixes ahead of 13 others; in 249, TELUS Mobility leads with 6 of 25 prefixes ahead of 10 others. 9 carriers hold prefixes in every one of Sudbury’s 2 area codes, while 7 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

28 of Sudbury’s 75 prefixes (37.3%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility, TELUS Mobility, Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) and Fido Solutions Inc. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Bell Canada, Bragg Communications Inc, Iristel Inc and Fibernetics Corporation. 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

Sudbury’s dated assignments run from 1999 to 2025. The busiest period was 2005–2009, when 14 prefixes went to 10 carriers. 20 prefixes (27%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. Since 2020 another 10 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Sudbury’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Bell Canada, Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) and Bell Mobility: these carriers made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Bell Canada in 1999. The most recent arrivals are Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Cable) (2017), Comwave Networks (2013) and Bell Aliant, a division of Bell Canada (2012), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Sudbury.

Sudbury’s 75 prefixes provide 750,000 numbers, which corresponds to a mid-sized city or a well-established suburb that every major carrier wants a slice of.

No single carrier dominates Sudbury: the leader, Bell Canada, holds only 28.0% of the prefixes against 15 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 18.2% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2005–2009, and 20 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Sudbury numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

20 undated in the register.

Dialling a Sudbury number

Sudbury is served by 2 overlaid area codes (705 and 249). A 249 number is no more “out of town” than a 705 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Sudbury shares area codes 705 and 249 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Barrie, Peterborough, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Huntsville, Collingwood, Lindsay and Orillia. The largest of them, Barrie, holds 92 prefixes in 249 and 705; the smallest on the list, New Liskeard, has just 11.

What a Sudbury number tells you

A number attached to Sudbury tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Ontario, most often Bell Canada. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 16 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 Ontario area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Sudbury: code 705-521 is recorded for Bell Canada, so every 705-521-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Sudbury, Ontario” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Sudbury prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 75 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Ontario