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Phone number styles around the world

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

19:54 / 05.10.06

This probably doesn't warrant its own thread, but I'm feeling daffy.

Until about six months ago, official Canadian phone number style was something like:
(555) 123-4576
where the parentheses surrounded a North American area code, and the seven-digit number was the local number (and used to be sub-divided into urban zone and local-local number, but that's been out for decades).

The advent of cell phones and pagers have created such a glut in phone numbers, though, that every major urban centre in North America now has at least two area codes. New York was first to go, I think. This, in turn, has led to "10-digit local dialling," wherein most cities require you to dial the phone number in full, without the "1" in front (a 1 indicates a long-distance call).

So the Canadian Government has proclaimed that we will no longer indicate area codes with parentheses. All hyphens all the time, baby.

Oddly, our toll-free numbers have always been expressed with a 1- and hyphens:
1-800-GO-DADDY and so on.

But those have been expanded as well: 1-888 about a decade ago, and now 1-877 too, IIRC. All, however, are called "1-800 numbers" if you're talking about them.

What are phone numbers like where you are? Can you tell what city/region you're calling from the first few digits? Is there a special pre-number indicator for long distance, free long distance, extra-fee long distance?

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

19:59 / 05.10.06

I hate the fact I have to dial all ten digits just to make a local phone call in this city. It's a bit weird because in New Orleans you didn't have to.

I love trying to call overseas. It takes me two tries to get it right.

20:12 / 05.10.06

One of my favorite bits of phone trivia, now demolished by cellphones, came from I think a Douglas Coupland book. Used to be you could tell how *important* your area was by the speed at which it could be dialed on a rotary phone (where a 0 is 10 clicks, a 9 is nine clicks and so on). The middle had to be 1 or 0, and the first number had to be no lower than 2. That's why New York is 212, D.C. is 202. LA is 310 (but there might be a quicker one, actually, that I can't recall).

It was cellphones and the rapid decline in unused numbers that led to area codes with middle numbers other than 1 or 0. I still believe that cellphones should have their own exclusive area codes and leave other area codes to landlines, but I'm old-fashioned and don't understand all this new-fangled digital technology.

But even when cellphones were the size and weight of bricks, I developed a habit of using dashes to demarcate area codes, just because it made typing easier. That was a data entry thing, mostly.

20:12 / 05.10.06

Oh, and Miami's 10-digit dialing now, but I don't think anywhere else in this state is.

20:13 / 05.10.06

Down here in Brazil we have eight digit number for the local (for the past ten years or so. before that there were seven digits).

Every local number that starts with a 7, 8, or 9 is a cell phone

20:21 / 05.10.06

UK numbers generally 5 digit area codes with 6 digit numbers

London is an exception to this where the numbers are 7 digits long with a 3 digit lodon wode area code...

20:25 / 05.10.06

It's quite complex here in the UK too. Our area codes are usually something stating with 01, like 01252 123456, although london has 0208 prefixes (and others, perhaps the London-clique could help me our here?), so they have numbers lie 0208 123 4567. And mobiles start with 07.

the US codes confuse me when I see them on the TV, what with all the little chucks and dashes and brackets and fives. I feel sorry for y'all.

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

20:28 / 05.10.06

I think we all feel sorry for each other. Dialing the UK...again not as bad as, say, dialing Iceland, but still.

20:32 / 05.10.06

dialing South Africa used to freak me out because local phone numbers were different lengths. I seem to remember some as short as four digits long. 3038 I think was one of my grandparents.

Some were longer, though. How did the phone know when you were finished? Made young grant's head hurt.

20:49 / 05.10.06

The London prefix is 020, which is followed by an 8-digit number that will begin with 7 if you are in inner or central London, and 8 if you are in the outer boroughs. I live in Tower Hamlets, so mine begins with a 7. The division is only really important when you're dialling from a landline within the city, though.

The dialling codes have changed for other places as well, haven't they? Portsmouth and Southampton both have similar arrangements to London - I think the Portsmouth code is 023, isn't it? Followed again by an 8-digit number.

20:54 / 05.10.06

Berlin´s number is 030, after that seven or eight digits for the individual connection. When we still had seven digit numbers, you could tell the phone´s locality from the first three digits. But that changed, and these days you can keep your phone number when you move.

For example when I still was living on the southern edge of Berlin, a colleague was living across the street and except for the last two digits our numbers were identical. I´ve still got that number, although I moved ca 20 km to the north. Most people in my area with old numbers have 416....

These days, more and more people don´t have phones at home anymore, because cell phones are less expensive.

21:16 / 05.10.06

The Dallas, TX area has done ten digit dialing for several years now. It's very confusing though because not all of Texas does it. The college town I live in an hour north of Dallas does not require ten digit dialing, and in fact won't connect the call if you include the local area code.

If I ever made a phone call with anything but my cell, this might anny me.

22:23 / 05.10.06

australia's pretty relaxed. just pick up any handset and bellow 'trev!' or 'mate!' and he'll pick up an' yas just natter for a bit and hang up. what's area codes?

14:45 / 07.10.06

Outside of London the UK's major cities have 4 digit area codes and 7 digit telephone numbers while other areas have 5 digit area code and 6 digit telephone numbers.