Phone prefixes in Swift Current, SK

In numbers

In-service prefixes

18

Telephone numbers covered

180,000

Carriers

9

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

December 3, 1999

Most recent assignment

July 30, 2020

Swift Current’s share of its area codes

Within area code 306, Swift Current accounts for only 14 of 777 prefixes (1.8%): the code is dominated by Saskatoon and spread over 228 rate centres. Within area code 639, Swift Current accounts for only 4 of 776 prefixes (0.5%): the code is dominated by Regina and spread over 202 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

SaskTel holds the largest share at 5 prefixes, 27.8% of the total, ahead of 8 other carriers. Code by code: in 306, SaskTel leads with 4 of 14 prefixes ahead of 6 others; in 639, SaskTel leads with 1 of 4 prefixes ahead of 3 others. 2 carriers hold prefixes in every one of Swift Current’s 2 area codes, while 7 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

9 of Swift Current’s 18 prefixes (50.0%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: SaskTel Mobility, Bell Mobility, Fido Solutions Inc, Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) and TELUS Mobility. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by SaskTel, Shaw Telecom Inc, Bell West Inc and TELUS Integrated Communications. 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

Swift Current’s dated assignments run from 1999 to 2020. The busiest period was 2005–2009, when 6 prefixes went to 5 carriers. 4 prefixes (22%) 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.

Swift Current’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to SaskTel and SaskTel Mobility: these carriers made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) in 1999. The most recent arrivals are Bell West Inc. (2016), Bell Mobility (2016) and TELUS Integrated Communications (2014), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Swift Current.

Swift Current has only 18 prefixes, or 180,000 numbers: a small rate centre, where the arrival of a single new carrier visibly changes the landscape.

No single carrier dominates Swift Current: the leader, SaskTel, holds only 27.8% of the prefixes against 8 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 14.3% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2005–2009, and 4 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Swift Current numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

4 undated in the register.

Dialling a Swift Current number

Swift Current is served by 2 overlaid area codes (306 and 639). A 639 number is no more “out of town” than a 306 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Swift Current shares area codes 306 and 639 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Regina, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw, Prince Albert, North Battleford, Yorkton, Moosomin and Outlook. The largest of them, Regina, holds 157 prefixes in 306 and 639; the smallest on the list, Watrous, has just 12.

What a Swift Current number tells you

A number attached to Swift Current tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Saskatchewan, most often SaskTel. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 9 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 Saskatchewan area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Swift Current: code 306-770 is recorded for SaskTel, so every 306-770-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Swift Current, Saskatchewan” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Swift Current prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 18 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Saskatchewan