Phone prefixes in Wawa, ON

In numbers

In-service prefixes

9

Telephone numbers covered

90,000

Carriers

8

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

June 28, 2005

Most recent assignment

June 17, 2022

Wawa’s share of its area codes

Within area code 705, Wawa accounts for only 6 of 770 prefixes (0.8%): the code is dominated by Barrie and spread over 203 rate centres. Within area code 249, Wawa accounts for only 3 of 585 prefixes (0.5%): the code is dominated by Sudbury and spread over 176 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) holds the largest share at 2 prefixes, 22.2% of the total, ahead of 7 other carriers. Code by code: in 705, Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) leads with 2 of 6 prefixes ahead of 4 others; in 249, Comwave Networks leads with 1 of 3 prefixes ahead of 2 others. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Wawa’s 2 area codes, while 8 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

3 of Wawa’s 9 prefixes (33.3%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) and Bell Mobility. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Bell Canada, Comwave Networks, Distributel and ExaTEL 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

Wawa’s dated assignments run from 2005 to 2022. The busiest period was 2010–2014, when 4 prefixes went to 4 carriers. 1 prefixes (11%) 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.

Wawa’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Bell Canada: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to ExaTEL Inc. in 2005. The most recent arrivals are Fibernetics Corporation (2022), TELUS Integrated Communications (2017) and Comwave Networks (2013), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Wawa.

Wawa has just 9 prefixes (90,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

No single carrier dominates Wawa: the leader, Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless), holds only 22.2% of the prefixes against 7 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 12.5% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2010–2014, and 1 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Wawa numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

1 undated in the register.

Dialling a Wawa number

Wawa is served by 2 overlaid area codes (705 and 249). A 249 number is no more “out of town” than a 705 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Wawa shares area codes 705 and 249 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Barrie, Sudbury, Peterborough, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Huntsville, Collingwood and Lindsay. The largest of them, Barrie, holds 92 prefixes in 249 and 705; the smallest on the list, Kirkland Lake, has just 12.

What a Wawa number tells you

A number attached to Wawa tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Ontario, most often Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless). It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 8 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 Wawa: code 705-804 is recorded for Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless), so every 705-804-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Wawa, Ontario” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Wawa prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 9 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Ontario