Phone prefixes in Three Hills, AB

In numbers

In-service prefixes

8

Telephone numbers covered

80,000

Carriers

7

Area codes

3

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

May 22, 2003

Most recent assignment

March 7, 2022

Three Hills’s share of its area codes

Within area code 403, Three Hills accounts for only 5 of 781 prefixes (0.6%): the code is dominated by Calgary and spread over 142 rate centres. Within area code 825, Three Hills accounts for only 2 of 769 prefixes (0.3%): the code is dominated by Calgary and spread over 301 rate centres. Within area code 587, Three Hills accounts for only 1 of 779 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Calgary and spread over 137 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

TELUS holds the largest share at 2 prefixes, 25.0% of the total, ahead of 6 other carriers. Code by code: in 403, TELUS leads with 2 of 5 prefixes ahead of 3 others; in 825, Distributel leads with 1 of 2 prefixes ahead of 1 others; TELUS Mobility is the only holder in 587. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Three Hills’s 3 area codes, while 7 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

3 of Three Hills’s 8 prefixes (37.5%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility, Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) and TELUS Mobility. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by TELUS, Bragg Communications Inc, Distributel and ISP Telecom 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

Three Hills’s dated assignments run from 2003 to 2022. The busiest period was 2005–2009, when 3 prefixes went to 3 carriers. 1 prefixes (13%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. Since 2020 another 1 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Three Hills’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 TELUS in 2003. The most recent arrivals are ISP Telecom Inc. (2022), Distributel (2016) and TELUS Mobility (2010), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Three Hills.

Three Hills has just 8 prefixes (80,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

No single carrier dominates Three Hills: the leader, TELUS, holds only 25.0% of the prefixes against 6 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 1 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Three Hills numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

1 undated in the register.

Dialling a Three Hills number

Three Hills is served by 3 overlaid area codes (403, 825 and 587). A 587 number is no more “out of town” than a 403 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Three Hills shares area codes 403, 825 and 587 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Fort McMurray, High River and Banff. The largest of them, Calgary, holds 711 prefixes in 403, 587 and 825; the smallest on the list, Stettler, has just 15.

What a Three Hills number tells you

A number attached to Three Hills tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Alberta, most often TELUS. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 7 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 Three Hills: code 403-443 is recorded for TELUS, so every 403-443-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Three Hills, Alberta” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Three Hills prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 8 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Alberta