Phone prefixes in Val-D'Or, QC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

27

Telephone numbers covered

270,000

Carriers

10

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

June 6, 2003

Most recent assignment

October 4, 2023

Val-D'Or’s share of its area codes

Within area code 819, Val-D'Or accounts for only 17 of 770 prefixes (2.2%): the code is dominated by Ottawa-Hull and spread over 211 rate centres. Within area code 873, Val-D'Or accounts for only 10 of 667 prefixes (1.5%): the code is dominated by Sherbrooke and spread over 162 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Telebec Ltee. holds the largest share at 6 prefixes, 22.2% of the total, ahead of 9 other carriers. Code by code: in 819, Telebec Ltee. leads with 5 of 17 prefixes ahead of 7 others; in 873, Videotron Ltd. leads with 4 of 10 prefixes ahead of 5 others. 4 carriers hold prefixes in every one of Val-D'Or’s 2 area codes, while 6 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

9 of Val-D'Or’s 27 prefixes (33.3%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility, TELUS Mobility, Fido Solutions Inc and Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless). Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Telebec Ltee, Videotron Ltd, ISP Telecom Inc and Iristel 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

Val-D'Or’s dated assignments run from 2003 to 2023. The busiest period was 2010–2014, when 10 prefixes went to 7 carriers. 6 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 1 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Val-D'Or’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Telebec Ltee and Bell Mobility: these carriers made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) in 2003. The most recent arrivals are Bell Canada (2023), Telebec Ltee. (2018) and TELUS Quebec (2014), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Val-D'Or.

Val-D'Or has only 27 prefixes, or 270,000 numbers: a small rate centre, where the arrival of a single new carrier visibly changes the landscape.

No single carrier dominates Val-D'Or: the leader, Telebec Ltee., holds only 22.2% of the prefixes against 9 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 4.8% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2010–2014, and 6 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Val-D'Or numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

The register also shows 1 prefix assigned but not yet in service in Val-D'Or (Cogeco Connexion Inc): numbers that will start showing up on call displays in the coming months.

6 undated in the register.

Dialling a Val-D'Or number

Val-D'Or is served by 2 overlaid area codes (819 and 873). A 873 number is no more “out of town” than a 819 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Val-D'Or shares area codes 819 and 873 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Ottawa-Hull, Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivieres, Drummondville, Gatineau, Victoriaville, Maniwaki and Rouyn-Noranda. The largest of them, Ottawa-Hull, holds 119 prefixes in 819 and 873; the smallest on the list, Plessisville, has just 11.

What a Val-D'Or number tells you

A number attached to Val-D'Or tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Quebec, most often Telebec Ltee.. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 10 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 Quebec area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Val-D'Or: code 819-280 is recorded for Telebec Ltee., so every 819-280-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Val-D'Or, Quebec” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Val-D'Or prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 27 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Quebec