Phone prefixes in Tofino, BC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

4

Telephone numbers covered

40,000

Carriers

4

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

March 1, 2006

Most recent assignment

November 13, 2017

Tofino’s share of its area codes

Within area code 236, Tofino accounts for only 2 of 730 prefixes (0.3%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 269 rate centres. Within area code 250, Tofino accounts for only 2 of 781 prefixes (0.3%): the code is dominated by Victoria and spread over 268 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Bell West Inc. holds the largest share at 1 prefixes, 25.0% of the total, ahead of 3 other carriers. Code by code: in 236, Bell West Inc. leads with 1 of 2 prefixes ahead of 1 others; in 250, Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) leads with 1 of 2 prefixes ahead of 1 others. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Tofino’s 2 area codes, while 4 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

1 of Tofino’s 4 prefixes (25.0%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless). Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Bell West Inc, Shaw Telecom Inc and TELUS. 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

Tofino’s dated assignments run from 2006 to 2017. 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 Tofino is flat.

Tofino’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 Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) in 2006. The most recent arrivals are Bell West Inc. (2017), Shaw Telecom Inc. (2016) and Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) (2006), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Tofino.

Tofino 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 Tofino: the leader, Bell West Inc., 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 Tofino numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

1 undated in the register.

Dialling a Tofino number

Tofino is served by 2 overlaid area codes (236 and 250). A 250 number is no more “out of town” than a 236 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Tofino shares area codes 236 and 250 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna, Nanaimo, South Kamloops, Prince George, Vernon and Penticton. The largest of them, Vancouver, holds 142 prefixes in 236; the smallest on the list, New Westminster, has just 11.

What a Tofino number tells you

A number attached to Tofino tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in British Columbia, most often Bell West Inc.. 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 a British Columbia area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Tofino: code 236-347 is recorded for Bell West Inc., so every 236-347-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Tofino, British Columbia” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Tofino prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

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

Elsewhere in British Columbia