Talk:Telephone numbering plan

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This article is within the scope of WikiProject Telecommunications, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to telecommunications on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project as a "full time member" and/or contribute to the discussion.

	To-do list for Telephone numbering plan:	edit · history · watch · refresh
Put international call prefix at top of all sections. Undersized Sections with articles that can be used as source material for a summary here. Argentina Austria China (PRC) Colombia Cyprus Country codes with no section either here or in a seperate article Belgium Denmark Macau The Former Yugoslavia (except Serbia/Montenegro) Sections in need of reduction North america

[edit] Australia

I just edited the part at the end of the Australia section, which claimed that the numbering system was 'not perfect' as it didn't exactly follow state boundaries. There are valid reasons why it doesn't, due to regional variations, and I explained these in the article itself. 124.176.236.215 05:59, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Japan

Japan's telephone numbering plan -- I just submitted a section on it and it's a bit long. Should I make an independent article about it? (Heian-794, 2004-08-30) - 219.0.216.146 21:00, August 29, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] New entry to this page

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NEW ENTRY TO THIS PAGE:

Actually, there is a difference in open and closed between dialing plans and numbering plans.

An open numbering plan means that there is no uniformity of number and area code length. Britain still is, to some extent, an open numbering plan.

A closed numbering plan means that there is uniformity. North America and Australia are examples of a closed numbering plan.

An open dialing plan means that the area code is not always required in dialing. North America and Australia are examples of an open dialing plan.

A closed dialing plan means that the entire "national number" must be dialed on all calls, including local calls, throughout the national numbering plan. France would be an example of a closed dialing plan. North America does not yet qualify, as there are still vast areas where the area code does not yet need to be dialed for local calls. For long distance purposes, North Americans must always dial the area code.

Some people in the numbering authorities of the North American Numbering Plan assume that a closed dialing plan will eventually be in place, and would be a prerequisite to the Expansion Plan that they recommend. This plan involves adding two digits between the area code and central office code, using 0s and 1s, thus creating eight digit "local" numbers that begin with a 0 or 1. Since, in their view, 10-digit dialing would already be mandatory, people should not be thinking of their phone number as just seven digits any more, anyway. Nevertheless, in non-overlaid area codes, people will still think of their numbers in the shorter form, and may question or resist a local number that begins with 0 or 1 in quotation, wondering if it is a long distance call and requires four or five additional digits. (e.g. 993-9225 in Dawson City becomes 0993-9225 - but is that actually 0-8670-0993-9225? Or 0-8670-993-9225 or 0-867-993-9225?)

There are superior options to expansion of the North American Numbering Plan that make use of the 80 reserved area codes that have a nine as the middle digit. By using these codes, it is possible to continue (as a flash cut from 7 to 8 digit) local dialing without area code in non-overlaid areas. New York 212 would become 2912, with no ambiguity since there is no 291 area code. At the same time, a 3 could be added in front of the local number, so 212-646-1234 would become 2912-3646-1234. At the end of permissive dialing, some 720 new area codes would become available, including 2812, 2712, 2612, 2512, 2412, 2312, 2212 (since 281, 271, 261, 251, 241, 231 and 221 would no longer exist), and even 2120, 2121, 2122, etc., since 212 would no longer exist. Choosing 3 to add to local numbers makes it an easy slogan to promote the change: 9 plus 3 equals 12 digit numbers.

Until the assignment of 440, 441 and 443 as area codes in the mid-1990s, there actually was another option that could have been employed: the prefixing of 4 in front of all existing area codes. (Once the first 4NX area code was assigned, this option was lost.) The slogan at the time could have been, for the new 12-digit numbers, add a 4 to make the area code four digits, and an 8 to make the local number eight digits.

GCapp@northwestel.net (2005-May-6) - 199.85.228.1 23:14, May 6, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Area codes and rates for calls

Area codes have absolutely no effect on the rates for a call, and when new area codes are introduced, phone companies advise their customers that rates will not change.

Area codes and central office codes, however, are used as reference identifiers to a set of coordinates known as V & H Coordinates. An area code may change, but the V&H coordinates do not. For example, when Hamilton, Ontario, changed in 1993-94 from NPA 416 to NPA 905, the V&H stayed the same, but the reference identifier changed from 416-522 to 905-522, for example, in the case of the 522 exchange in Hamilton.

When a call is completed, the exchange closes a record that includes the originating number, the destination number and assorted other billing instructions. This record is immediately, or in a batch transfer a few times a day, transferred to the billing computer.

When a call record arrives in the billing computer, the computer analyzes the record. In the NANP, it takes the first six digits of the originating and destination number and references the computer's database for North America to find the details of those locations. For points within Canada and the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, the V&H coordinates are obtained for each of the two points, and the distance is calculated using the differences between the two V coordinates and the two H coordinates. A formula works out the diagonal mileage between them.

This mileage figure is checked against a table of rates. For example, Bell Canada would have an "intra-company" table for calls within its operating area, a "trans-Canada" table for calls to points in most of the rest of Canada, a "Northwest" table for calls to the far north, a Hawaii table, an Alaska table and a United States table. Each table specifies a per-minute rate for a given mileage band (e.g. 0 to 16, 17 to 24, 25 to 40, 41 to 80, 81 to 160, 161 to 300, etc.).

For calls outside Canada/USA, the location is identified differently: each Caribbean nation and each point outside the NANP, for example, has a fixed rate regardless of the distance from the location in Canada or the USA. Some companies in the United States may still be using a two-line rate for calls to Mexico: one rate to a point on the US/Mexico border, and another rate for that point onward inside Mexico, then add them together.

St. Louis and East St. Louis are in different area codes, but the rate is much lower than from East St. Louis to points clear on the Indiana border to the east, although that area code (618) stretches across Illinois. If 618 is split, the rate will not change for calling Grayville on the Indiana border. Area codes simply reference the real rate drivers: the V&H coordinates.

GBC 06:52, 26 August 2005 (UTC)

This is of course highly system specific. There are many billing systems, with many modes of operation.

[edit] London, United Kingdom

London is now stable at eight-digit numbers, and since introduction of "020" to replace "0171" and "0181", the former seven digit numbers are extended to eight digits with the prepending of the 7 or 8. This is the last "wrenching" change that Londoners are subject to for many years to come. You cannot dial within London with only seven digits... you must dial eight digits, or 020 plus eight digits. Since all existing numbers begin now with a 7 or an 8, additional initial digits can now be employed, and 3 is the first additional digit to be introduced.

A crude analogy would be if, say, in New Mexico, Albuquerque had central office codes beginning only with 2, 4, 5 and 7 (e.g. 261, 438, 527, 709), while rural New Mexico had 3, 6, 8 and 9, then a code split occurred. Now, Albuquerque starts to get numbers beginning with 3 as well (e.g. 381).

A short history for London: originally it was 01 plus seven digits. In 1990, growth demanded the split, and it changed to 071 and 081. Then, nationwide, on phONEday, 1 was added after the first zero on all area codes, although specialized phones like cellular and toll free were treated differently. 071 became 0171 and 081 become 0181. The final change came circa 2000 when 0171nxxxxxx and 0181nxxxxxx were changed to 0207nxxxxxx and 0208nxxxxxx, with 020 serving as London's single code the way 028 is Northern Ireland's single code.

If the North American plan allowed such a change to happen (i.e., variable length phone numbers), one could imagine New York's five area codes amalgamated into one new code, e.g. (212) becomes (59)2, 347 becomes (59)5, 646 becomes (59)6, 917 becomes (59)7, 718 becomes (59)8, and the last digit is shifted to the local number, so all of New York is area code 59, with eight digit numbers. Then, in time, 3xxx-xxxx, 4xxx-xxxx, 9xxx-xxxx numbers are introduced.

GBC 04:09, 27 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Hong Kong

This is a disagreement on how Hong Kong should be presented. User:Huaiwei changed [1] [2] [3] Hong Kong from a section to a subsection under China. She/he asserts that her/his point of view is the correct one, and should prevails. She/he later took one more step to remove Hong Kong from the article [4]. Although Hong Kong is part of the PRC in terms of sovereignty, it is assigned its own country code. In my opinion, on a list of numbering plans by country, there is no problem for Hong Kong to stand alone, as on many other lists. When there is a disagreement, the version prior to the contentious edit shall be displayed. — Insta ntnood 09:15, August 30, 2005 (UTC)

To put it simply, I am merely heading to your requests to follow your "policy" in un-doing contentious edits. Or are you saying that edit is not contentious?--Huaiwei 10:10, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

Please kindly remove Hong Kong from all similar lists by countr~~ies~~y if you're serious with your point of view that presenting Hong Kong as a standalone section is contentious. At the same time, please bear in mind not to disrupt Wikipedia to make a point. Thanks. — Insta ntnood 10:31, August 30, 2005 (UTC) (modified 12:06, August 30, 2005 (UTC))

First, you ask me not to disrupt wikipedia to make a point. Than you ask me to go remove HK from all country lists. I am utterly confused. What would you like me to do?--Huaiwei 11:36, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

It is confusing, but that's what you should be doing if you're serious with your point of view. (Please note I did not request you to remove Hong Kong "from all country lists", but "from all similar lists by country". Some lists by country does not share much smiliarities with this article, and may not be appropriate to be dealt with in the same way.) — Insta ntnood 12:06, August 30, 2005 (UTC)

And what exactly is "my point of view" in your books? Meanwhile, mind telling what is the difference between "from all country lists" and "from all similar lists by country"?--Huaiwei 12:35, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

Your point of view is precisely stated in this edit summary [5]. You said before on other discussion pages that Hong Kong is a "sub-entity" (subnational entity) instead of a dependent territory, and you tended to equate the definition of "country" with "sovereign State". The difference between the two is already mentioned. — Insta ntnood 12:59, August 30, 2005 (UTC)

Hong Kong is a special administrative region under Chinese sovereignty, and so is Macao. Functionally, it has a separate country code, and therefore, for the purposes of Telephone Numbering Plan, it is a distinct entity. I suggest that Hong Kong be retitled, "Hong Kong, China" in the shortest form, or if Wikipedia administrators are agreeable, "Hong Kong (special administrative region of the People's Republic of China)". If at some future date, Hong Kong is integrated into China's national numbering plan, there would then, of course, have to be harmony between the two plans in terms of internal numbering structure and routing digits. At that point, the 852 country code would be phased out. A similar situation may well prevail if the Republic of China/Taiwan is at at some point reunited with the People's Republic, and, as seems likely in such a circumstance, the "unofficial" 886 code is eliminated; there would have to be harmonization of the internal numbering structure and routing digits. In the near term, I would say that Macao is the most likely one to be integrated from 853 into 86; I say Macao, because it has the shortest internal telephone numbers that can easily be prefixed with a national area code, and because it is already functional under Chinese sovereignty. Hong Kong numbers are very long, and would require a two- or one-digit area code under +86. Taiwan numbers are also fairly long, and Taiwan still asserts separate governance, making integration unlikely at the present time. GBC 03:06, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

So far no plan has been revealed for the Hong Kong or Macao number plans to be integrated to be that of mainland China, and it's unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future, the same as their own participation in international organisations and sport events. — Insta ntnood 09:02, August 31, 2005 (UTC)

But that is mere speculation. No one at this point in time can forsee how much the two SARs will intergrate back into the PRC over time, but logic tells us it can only go one direction, and not the other, unless, of coz, the two SARs decides to go independent. Irregardless, I agree with Gcapp1959 to have the two SARs listed as "XXX, China" as per how the UN lists it in country lists alongside the PRC.--Huaiwei 09:09, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

Right. No one can forsee if Wikipedia will still be working tomorrow, or if George W. Bush will still be alive the next hour. Since only sovereign states are members of the United Nations, the non-sovereign territories are listed according to the requests of members representing their interests. This is not a list of UN members, nor a publication of the UN. — Insta ntnood 09:27, 7 October 2005 (UTC) (modified 09:58, 7 October 2005 (UTC))

I find this comment "non-sovereign territories are listed according to the request of the members" highly disturbing. So theoratically, any unrecognised territory of the UN has greater liberty to assert its autonomy or independence by choosing to present itself in anyway it so chooses, including in a format usually reserved for independent, recognised countries? The UN is a representation of the world's independent states (and that of non-indendent states via representation by their controlling state. HK is represented in the UN by the PRC), and has long been seen as the most nuetral organisation with practices which wikipedia can sometimes follow for the sake of its NPOV guidelines. The UN dictates, that listing "Hong Kong, China" alongside the "People's Republic of China" does not contravene the political statuses of the two entities, and has the blessings of the PRC. There is no reason why we should not adopt this standard, unless certain political motives are in play here.--Huaiwei 09:51, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

So are you trying to say "Hong Kong" is not neutral, and "Hong Kong, China" is more neutral? Tell me in what way is the sovereignty of the PRC over Hong Kong not sufficiently acknowledged in the current way of presentation? — Insta ntnood 09:58, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

"Hong Kong" itself being nuetral or not is of no significance when there is no context to examine it with. Listing "Hong Kong" in a country list together with other independent states is, however, not nuetral. In this list, having "China" listed together with "Hong Kong" suggests that Hong Kong is an independent state on the same level as the country "China". This is of coz not taking into account the line "Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China" being added later. I would propose removing this line, and simply changing the Hong Kong subheading to "Hong Kong, China".--Huaiwei 10:50, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

To average readers who are not familiar with Asia and China, your proposal may look like there's a place called "People's Republic of China", and another place called "Hong Kong, China". IMO this is not as clear and sufficient as the present way of presentation to acknowledge the sovereignty of the PRC over Hong Kong. And, please, bear in mind that these are lists by countries, not lists by sovereign states. — Insta ntnood 10:55, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

Aa far as all members of the United Nations and all of its constituent bodies, to the central Chinese government in Beijing, as well as the SAR government in HK, listing "People's Republic of China" and "Hong Kong, China" together in country lists is considered acceptable and preferred by law. Wikipedia is not meant to be a reflection of a single confused wikipedian who thinks others will consider seeing "China" and "Hong Kong" is a country list any less confusing and more nuetral. As for definitions of what a country is, it can be left for another day. A D-day so to speak.--Huaiwei 11:02, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Philippines

What about PHILIPPINES? There nothing about the Philippines in this article. :( - 4.28.198.246 00:42, September 11, 2005 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestion! When you feel an article needs changing, please feel free to make whatever changes you feel are needed. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit any article by simply following the Edit this page link. You don't even need to log in! (Although there are some reasons why you might like to...) The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use out the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. --cesarb 00:51, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Within area-code calls

Is it still the case in some places that users do not have to dial area codes to call other numbers in the same area code? I've mostly lived in urban areas of the US, where 10-number dialing (even within an area code) are the norm. If the rest of the world is moving this way, we should change the article.--BK 65.213.77.129 19:58, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

yes in the US, and local call ten digit dialing didn't work until rather recently, actually. SchmuckyTheCat 22:04, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

It's inconsistent. Most places allow 1+10D, places with overlays usually allow 10D for local and 1+10D for toll, but in NYC it is 1+10D for everything.

looking through the list most countries seem to have gone for a variable split between area code and local number. For example in the uk you have areas with a 4 digit (not including the 0 prefix) area code and 6 digit local number, areas with a 3 digit local code and 7 digit local number and areas with a 2 digit area code and 8 digit local number. Plugwash 02:43, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

In Germany no one would dial a local number using the area code, as long as the caller is situated in the same area. Actually while cell phones became wide-spread in the last decade there were lots of miscalls, since people forgot to dial the area code, which is obligatory when calling from cell phone networks to local fixed networks. (btw: modified Germany's numbering plan)--Cvdr 01:37, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

Noone or just noone who was born before the cellphone generation? i'm in the uk and on the rare occasion i make a local landline-landline call i usually find myself dialing the full number out of habbit because thats what i have to do for the majority of calls i make (landline-cellphone,cellphone-landline, long distance landline-landline,voip to landline etc). Plugwash 21:15, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] how much info on individual countries should be on this page.

currently some countries just have a main article link whilst others have huge ammounts of text on this page. I'd like to make the coverage of countries on this page roughly consistant. I plan to check the linked articles to make sure i am not removing information from wikipedia as a whole.

I think for each country this article should cover

The countries country code
How to dial out of the country
The basics of number structure (variable or fixed size area codes variable or fixed overall length any very high level organisation etc) but not any detail of individual area code allocations.

i do not belive this article should cover history for individual countries either that belongs in the individual articles.

any objections? Plugwash 22:40, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] brazilian mobile numbers.

are theese within the regular area codes? and does the length of 8 digits thats given include the leading 7/8/9? and what exactly are the exceptions in brazillia? Plugwash 21:02, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

They are within the regular area codes. The length includes the leading digit. I don't know what the exception is; I would like to know, but navigating the database of laws, norms, and related things at the Anatel website is not easy (for instance, I could not find an authoritative source for 7 being allocated (it was reserved before); I know it's for mobile phones from personal experience). I did a rewrite of Brazilian telephone numbering plan; take a look and see if all this is clear enough there. --cesarb 01:58, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

i've traced the contribution where that was added to this article. unfortunately its an anonymous one and two years old so i doubt the user will see my comment on the ips talk page. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Telephone_numbering_plan&diff=next&oldid=8441804

[edit] Macau

anyone have any info on this country codes numbering plan? i noticed it was missing when editing the china section. Plugwash 03:22, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

well someone just created a macu telephone numbering plan article but the article seems to talk about hong kong! Plugwash 22:44, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

That article talks about Macau. — Insta ntnood 19:42, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] few questions on the north american numbering plan content here

[edit] Mobiles in Caribbean countries

Most carriers charge a gaping difference for calls /to/ mobiles and fixed phones in (e.g.) Jamaica:

...and I think this is because "caller pays". And I still believe these operaters judge on the number alone. While the USA and Canada have practically a mix of it's own area codes with codes of other countries, the carribean don't. They can practically think and feel having e.g. +1876 as their country code and make a usefull subdivision of the seven numbers left.

Other countries with price differences on mobile/fixed for callers: Bahamas, Dominican Republic, etc.

Who can confirm this?

[edit] Peculiarites section

There are several noteworthy peculiarities in the NANP:

I'm sure canada had a code specifically for mobiles. I get the feeling a lot of the info under this title reffers to the USA not the NANP as a whole. Plugwash 01:41, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

IIRC, Canada may have had one at one time, but it was unpopular and generally unused. No evidence of it appears on the site of the Canadian numbering plan administrator. Canada, like the USA, allocates mobile numbers out of the same area codes as landlines at present. VT hawkeye_{talk to me} 04:17, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Area code 600 (i.e., +1 600) is assigned for Canadian domestic use, including caller-pays cellular. LincMad 2006-04-10 06:51 UTC

[edit] Most?!

Since a calling party cannot distinguish between landline and mobile phone numbers, most wireless carriers in North America use a "subscriber pays" charging model where the wireless phone subscriber pays for all airtime on his/her phone.

whats with the most here? what do the others do? Plugwash 01:39, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Just within the USA, only one major national carrier (the Nextel portion of Sprint Nextel) offers plans with free incoming calls, and only on a subset of its calling plans in which rates are generally higher on a per-minute basis than the rest; essentially, the subscriber is paying, just in a different manner. Nowhere in NANP that I know if does a user pay more for calling a mobile number. VT hawkeye_{talk to me} 04:17, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] dialing plan information

The NANPA web site has dialing plan information by area code.

well i couldn't spot it. anyone know where on the site it can be found? Plugwash 01:39, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

On the NANPA home page, click Numbering Resources, then NPA (Area) codes, and on that page click the link for area code search. The info for each area code includes the dialing plan. John L 03:20, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] coincidence?

is there any evidence this was a coincidance and not a result of the americans large political power? Plugwash 02:59, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

I presume you're referring to the text from the Open Dialing Plan section, In the United States, Canada, and other countries or territories using the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), the trunk code is '1', which is also (by coincidence) the country calling code. The "coincidence" reference there is just within that text -- it's noting that the trunk code and country code are the same in the NANP, while outside it they generally are not the same -- not making a political/historical assertion. VT hawkeye_{talk to me} 04:17, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

I presume that it's not a coincidence that the US got the number 1 as their country calling code, but that they got it on account of the number of phone calls (countries with higher traffic tend to get shorter numbers, I think) and on account of their political importance/influence/power. However, I presume that the fact that the trunk code for the US is 1 and the fact that the country code for the US is also 1 are unrelated. I have no evidence to support either view, though. -- pne (talk) 11:56, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure it's a coincidence. Country code 1 for the NANP is undoubtedly because there are more phones in the NANP than in any other country code, and AT&T has a long history of minimizing "dial pull", e.g., that's why New York is area code 212. Telephone legend says that dial 1 for toll is because telcos avoided assigning numbers with a leading 1 because it might be confused with a hook flash, so there wasn't much renumbering required to avoid collisions. John L 03:20, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

Only two single-digit country codes were ever assigned, +1 for North America and +7 for the Soviet Union. All of the former Soviet republics have split into their own country codes, except Russia and Kazakhstan, which still share +7. As a matter of policy, all new country codes assigned are three digits. That's why Ukraine, with a population of 47 million, has a longer code (+380) than Singapore (+65) with 1/10 the population. LincMad 2006-04-10 07:00 UTC

I guess because at the time the early codes were allocated the soviet union and the USA were probablly the only ones with enough clout/population to get 1 digit codes. It seems the current policy of 3 digit codes for all new allocations was introduced due to code space exaustion issues. Plugwash 01:52, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] India fixed (landline) numbers

Moved from article to here --cesarb 15:36, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

I think this is wrong. You have : National Significant Number (NSN) = National destiantion Code (NDC) [2-4 digits] + Subscriber Number [8-6 digits] national carrier access code = 010 format : 010 + Carrier Identification Code (CIC) + NSN —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.255.106.202 (talk • contribs) 13:40, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

I think that the section on India is tooooo lengthy. Perhaps we should create a new article for it. Joshua Chiew 02:25, 22 August 2006 (UTC)Joshua Chiew

[edit] Dead Hyperlink

http://ourwebhome.com/TENP/TENproject.html

Removed. - Randwicked Alex B 16:29, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Working - I think the site may have been down when you hit it last. Interesting link; should we place it back in? Blatkinson 01:30, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merge with Dial Plan

Vice-Versa - I feel that we should merge Telephone numbering Plan into Dial Plan as Dial Plan is the industry term used to describe the concept. Blatkinson 01:36, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
- Disagree, Dial plan is what a swithc and/or PBX uses to reach the numbering plan, while numbering plan is what the PSTN uses for routing.--Shmaltz 02:54, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Spain

There may be some inconsistences in Spanish prefixes:

I don't know any 800 xxx xxx toll-free phone
About 80x xxx xxx, shared-cost, I only know 803, 806 and 807, which are at premium rates.
I think most of old 90x prefixes still apply:

 900 xxx xxx Freephone
 901 xxx xxx Shared cost
 902 xxx xxx Not sure about the name but is used by companies because of common rates from every region
 905 xxx xxx For massive calling (TV contests,...)

[edit] Correct UK Usage

I feel the current statement Re correct UK international dial code is misleading - surely its apparant that the number in brackets needs to be dropped when using +44 else the brackets wouldn't be there at all. Also saying "shouldn't be used" is opinion and not appropriate esspecially with it being the accepted alternative (Google for "+44(0)20" reveals 53 million as opposed to "+44 20" 19 million)

The "0" in the brackets is the trunk code (the code used when calling to another area code). The "+44 20" format is the international format adopted by the ITU-T. The format with "0" in the bracket is incorrect - even if it is used more widely (see also E.123 - it states that "parentheses should not be used in the international notation"). Joshua Chiew 10:50, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Rename section

I think that the section on United States, Canada and West Indies should be renamed to North American Numbering Plan. The 24 countries and territories are in an integrated numbering plan and a common country code +1, so we should rename the section to the name of the numbering plan. Joshua Chiew 07:26, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Portugal telephone numbers

I'm not sure whether 0936 turning into 96 is entirely correct - AFAIK, 96 is only used for the TMN network, 93 and 91 being used for the other two major telephone service providers. Cctoide 19:25, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Splitting into 5 Continents pages

What about splitting this page into 5 continents: American, European, Asian, African, Oceania (Australia, NZ etc).

Whatever happened to African, Antarctic (for the sake of argument), Eurasian, North American, Australian, and South American? The problem with dividing the page into five continents is that no one seems to agree on what exactly defines a continent, let alone what the correct division is. I, for one, favor the six continent model with the Americas listed as two separate continents and Eurasia as one. I think any Martian landing on earth would agree that it's the most logical division (based on both relative size and percentage of perimeter surrounded by open ocean). I mean, I'm willing to yield on calling Australia "Oceania" or "Australasia" in order to protect nationalist sentiments in New Zealand, but that's about it. --Rcgy 23:55, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] US area code part of number in many cities

I am from New Jersey, and know that both in Boston and in New Jersey ten-digit dialing is used (whereby the "area code" now makes up the first three digits of a ten-digit phone number). I think the US is a bad example of a country using fixed-length area codes. If no one opposes to this, I would like to delete the US from the list of examples -- perhaps later someone can add it to the examples of countries with variable area codes. --Rcgy 23:55, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

I've just reverted The NANP is a good example of a fixed length area code plan that expanded by overlays (after outcry at splits) and ended up with 10 digit dialing in urban areas because of this. This is very different from a system of variable length area codes. Removing the US and leaving canada was a also bit odd since they are the two main parts of one system. Plugwash 18:59, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

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