Phone prefixes in Tobermory, ON

In numbers

In-service prefixes

2

Telephone numbers covered

20,000

Carriers

2

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

November 22, 2016

Most recent assignment

November 22, 2016

Tobermory’s share of its area codes

Within area code 226, Tobermory accounts for only 1 of 778 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by London and spread over 166 rate centres. Within area code 519, Tobermory accounts for only 1 of 779 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by London and spread over 210 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: Bell Mobility is the only holder in 226; Persona Communications Inc. is the only holder in 519. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Tobermory’s 2 area codes, while 2 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

1 of Tobermory’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 Persona Communications 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

Tobermory’s dated assignments run from 2016 to 2016. 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 Tobermory is flat.

Tobermory’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Persona Communications Inc: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Bell Mobility in 2016. The most recent arrivals are Bell Mobility (2016), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Tobermory.

Tobermory 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 Tobermory: 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 Tobermory numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

Dialling a Tobermory number

Tobermory is served by 2 overlaid area codes (226 and 519). A 519 number is no more “out of town” than a 226 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Tobermory shares area codes 226 and 519 with at least 20 other rate centres, including London, Kitchener-Waterloo, Windsor, Guelph, Brantford, Chatham, Sarnia and Hespeler. The largest of them, London, holds 178 prefixes in 226 and 519; the smallest on the list, Preston, has just 12.

What a Tobermory number tells you

A number attached to Tobermory tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Ontario, 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 an Ontario area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Tobermory: code 226-391 is recorded for Bell Mobility, so every 226-391-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Tobermory, Ontario” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Tobermory prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

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

Elsewhere in Ontario