Phone prefixes in Trail, BC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

11

Telephone numbers covered

110,000

Carriers

7

Area codes

3

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

October 30, 2001

Most recent assignment

March 5, 2019

Trail’s share of its area codes

Within area code 250, Trail accounts for only 6 of 781 prefixes (0.8%): the code is dominated by Victoria and spread over 268 rate centres. Within area code 778, Trail accounts for only 4 of 779 prefixes (0.5%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 159 rate centres. Within area code 236, Trail accounts for only 1 of 730 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 269 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

TELUS holds the largest share at 4 prefixes, 36.4% of the total, ahead of 6 other carriers. Code by code: in 250, TELUS leads with 3 of 6 prefixes ahead of 3 others; in 778, TELUS leads with 1 of 4 prefixes ahead of 3 others; TELUS Mobility is the only holder in 236. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Trail’s 3 area codes, while 5 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

5 of Trail’s 11 prefixes (45.5%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: TELUS Mobility, Bell Mobility, Fido Solutions Inc and Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless). Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by TELUS, Bell West Inc and Shaw 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

Trail’s dated assignments run from 2001 to 2019. The busiest period was 2010–2014, when 3 prefixes went to 3 carriers. 3 prefixes (27%) 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 Trail is flat.

Trail’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 Mobility in 2001. The most recent arrivals are Shaw Telecom Inc. (2013), TELUS (2012) and Bell West Inc. (2010), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Trail.

Trail has only 11 prefixes, or 110,000 numbers: a small rate centre, where the arrival of a single new carrier visibly changes the landscape.

No single carrier dominates Trail: the leader, TELUS, holds only 36.4% 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 0.0% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2010–2014, and 3 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Trail numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

3 undated in the register.

Dialling a Trail number

Trail is served by 3 overlaid area codes (250, 778 and 236). A 236 number is no more “out of town” than a 250 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Trail shares area codes 250, 778 and 236 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna, New Westminster, Nanaimo, South Kamloops, Prince George and Abbotsford. The largest of them, Vancouver, holds 314 prefixes in 236 and 778; the smallest on the list, North Vancouver, has just 21.

What a Trail number tells you

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

Reading a register entry for Trail: code 250-364 is recorded for TELUS, so every 250-364-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Trail, British Columbia” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Trail prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 11 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in British Columbia