Phone prefixes in Witless Bay, NL

In numbers

In-service prefixes

3

Telephone numbers covered

30,000

Carriers

3

Area codes

1

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

June 29, 2009

Most recent assignment

July 19, 2013

Witless Bay’s share of its area code

Within area code 709, Witless Bay accounts for only 3 of 630 prefixes (0.5%): the code is dominated by St. John's and spread over 209 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Aliant Telecom (NF) holds the largest share at 1 prefixes, 33.3% of the total, ahead of 2 other carriers. Code by code: in 709, Aliant Telecom (NF) leads with 1 of 3 prefixes ahead of 2 others.

Wireless and wireline

None of Witless Bay’s holders carries a mobility brand in its registered name: all 3 prefixes belong to wireline or wholesale carriers, among them Aliant Telecom (NF), Bragg Communications Inc and Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Cable). A call showing a Witless Bay number therefore nominally comes from a landline, cable or VoIP platform rather than a locally assigned cellphone.

How the allocation was built up

Witless Bay’s dated assignments run from 2009 to 2013. The busiest period was 2005–2009, when 1 prefixes went to 1 carrier. 1 prefixes (33%) 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 Witless Bay is flat.

Witless Bay’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Aliant Telecom (NF): this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Cable) in 2009. The most recent arrivals are Bragg Communications Inc. (2013) and Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Cable) (2009), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Witless Bay.

Witless Bay has just 3 prefixes (30,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

No single carrier dominates Witless Bay: the leader, Aliant Telecom (NF), holds only 33.3% of the prefixes against 2 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 2005–2009, and 1 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Witless Bay numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

1 undated in the register.

Dialling a Witless Bay number

A single area code, 709, covers Witless Bay, and it is not overlaid with any other code on this territory: one of the few parts of Canada where seven-digit local dialling may still work. From abroad, dial +1 709 and the seven-digit number.

The numbering neighbourhood

Witless Bay shares area code 709 with at least 20 other rate centres, including St. John's, Corner Brook, Clarenville, Carbonear, Gander, Marystown, Bay Roberts and Labrador City - Wabush. The largest of them, St. John's, holds 100 prefixes in 709; the smallest on the list, Glovertown, has just 5.

What a Witless Bay number tells you

A number attached to Witless Bay tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Newfoundland and Labrador, most often Aliant Telecom (NF). It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 3 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 Newfoundland and Labrador area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Witless Bay: code 709-334 is recorded for Aliant Telecom (NF), so every 709-334-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Witless Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador” there names a rate centre, not a municipality.

Every Witless Bay prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 3 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Newfoundland and Labrador