Telecom/1996-04-telecom-walnutcreek.iso/country.codes/Read.me.first

Internet Message Format | 1994-12-20 | 8.8 KB

Date: Tue, 12 Jul 94 22:50:00 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Dave Leibold)
Subject: Update to Country Codes intro
Reply-To: [e-mail]


Detailed Country Code Listings for the TELECOM Digest Archives
July 1994

Detailed country code listings are available via the Internet courtesy of
the TELECOM Digest Archives. These may be found at site lcs.mit.edu in the
subdirectory telecom-archives/country.codes. Not only are the country codes
listed, but also area codes within each country where applicable.

The list is designed to list the nationally significant area codes. Local
information such as exchanges within a country's area code are not listed
except in special instances. Some nations do not use area codes, but rather
the local number represents the complete national number. In a few cases,
these lists may show the initial digits of the phone number that determine
the particular city or region.

Format

The lists are broken up into files representing each world numbering
zone (i.e. country codes beginning with 2 are in one file, country
codes beginning with 3 are in another, etc). The zones are as follows:

    1       - North America (Canada, USA, most Caribbean nations)
    2       - Africa
    3 and 4 - Europe
    5       - South/Latin America
    6       - Oceana including South Pacific
    7       - Russia, Ukraine, most other ex-Soviet nations
    8       - East Asia
    9       - Middle East, western and southern portions of Asia

Note that some exceptions exist to the world numbering zones. Greenland has
country code 299, in the Africa country code series. This is due to the lack
of available country codes in the European and North America zones, thus a
country code was assigned from the nearest available zone.

In the country.codes subdirectory on lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Archives)
the lists will appear as separate files for each zone. Some zones are
subdivided into separate files due to the amount of information involved
in some cases. The UK (country code 44) has its own file, for instance.
File names in the Archives directory listing will reflect the zones,
and indicate ranges of country codes where the zones had to be subdivided.

The lists are ordered first by country code, then by area code within the
country (for international dialing purposes, without any long distance
access prefixes for domestic use), then ordered by place names.

In some cases, more than one place name is represented per line for given
area codes. This is done to conserve space, especially where a country has
many area codes and places represented. In such cases, the place names are
generally listed alphabetically, and can be found on a text search or through
such utilities as (in Unix) "grep".

Limitations, Disclaimers and Conditions

The listings are incomplete in certain areas; conversely, it may seem to be
very complete for some nations. This reflects the availability of detailed
telephone information for particular countries. In some cases, time
constraints did not permit complete listings at this time, especially when an
abundance of detailed information was available. Assistance in filling in
such gaps or correcting outdated information would be appreciated; please
use one of the contact e-mail addresses listed below. Not everything was
treated consistently in the list, either, owing much to the aforementioned
discrepancies and time constraints in compiling the lists.

********************************* NOTE **********************************
* This listing is subject to changes or errors in source or compilation *
* and is particularly subject to the numbering plan overhauls which are *
* taking place in many nations.                                         *
*                                                                       *
* This is a volunteer effort, and not an official list, the authors     *
* assume no liability for errors or omissions; use at your own risk.    *
*************************************************************************

These lists were compiled for the benefit of the Internet community, the
computer community at large, and especially for TELECOM Digest readers.
These lists may be freely distributed for non-commercial or individual use.
For-profit use or commercial reproduction will require permission from the
list compilers.

Features and Notes on the Lists

Some countries do not have area codes, but rather the local number is
the unique national number. A * designator appears with such country
codes, indicating that no area code precedes the given (local) number
(i.e. dial international access code, then country code, then number only).

In few cases (France, Cuba) a main area code such as 1 needs to be dialed
before a number in the main metropolitan area (Paris, Havana) but no area
code would be needed for points elsewhere in the country. (Note that France
is expected to change its numbering plan to assign area codes to areas
outside of Paris.)

The area/city codes listed are provided as they would be used in international
dialing to the points concerned. That is, any domestic leading access codes
are not listed (e.g. 071 STD code in the UK would be listed under country code
44 as 71, rather than 071, with the common '0' STD access code removed).

Some countries have completely revised their domestic dialing systems, or are
about to, thus many STD codes available in previous years have changed or are
no longer available. Notes are included in the listings where appropriate.

Spellings of place names is complicated by various spellings for given places,
often due to spelling within the language group of that place, or due to
varying renderings of place names when translated. The place names listed were
ones that would be deemed most familiar or plausible. In some cases, a listing
in an English-language directory was accepted as a suitable spelling,
especially if that directory came from the nation concerned. In a few cases,
the Encyclopaedia Britannica or the Times Atlas was used to resolve a few
place names. There are a few entries such as "Lisbon (Lisboa)" or "Prague
(Praha)" where the common spellings are different domestically and
internationally. Meanwhile, there are often changes to community names;
while these are updated whenever possible, it is possible that some listings
may use former place names.


Credits

Much of the information was distilled from various telephone and classified
directories and information posted on TELECOM Digest. Telephone directories
from such places as Toronto, the UK and other international points were
helpful. Sometimes an English-language business classified directory was
available that could list the various STD codes for a country. The Hotel
& Travel Index and OAG Travel Planner also provided some leads for area/STD
codes. Some international calling listings from AT&T and Stentor (Telecom
Canada), Teleglobe and BT were also helpful in verifying area codes.


Thanks to the following for their contributions:

Nigel Allen ([e-mail])
Andreas Birgerson ([e-mail])
Serdar Boztas ([e-mail])
Richard Budd
Warren Burstein (reviewed Israel codes)
Dr. Aivars Celmins ([e-mail])
Jason Childers ([e-mail])
John Covert (previous work done on country code listings)
Thomas Diessel ([e-mail])
David Esan ([e-mail])
J. Gao (an extra China STD code)
Paul Gillingwater ([e-mail])
Bob Goudreau (some general corrections, observations)
Gymnazium Praha-9 Class 4I ([e-mail])
Gert Jervan ([e-mail])
Ben Kinchant (New Zealand information)
David Lemson ([e-mail])
Manuel Moguilevsky (Argentina; South American help)
Erik Thomas Mueller ([e-mail])
A. Satish Pai ([e-mail])
Valdo Praust ([e-mail])
Werenfried Spit ([e-mail])
David Wilson ([e-mail], Australian information)
Frank Vance ([e-mail])
Gerben P Vos ([e-mail], Netherlands comments)

There are likely others who have contributed directly or indirectly to the
list. Anyone who was omitted from the credits is encouraged to contact
one of the e-mail addresses below so that such omissions may be rectified.
Credits also appear in the lists themselves for those who submitted
information on particular countries.


Correspondence

For any correspondence regarding these country code listings including
updates to information, corrections or suggestions, please send e-mail
directly to Carl Moore ([e-mail]) or David Leibold (Fidonet 1:250/730
([e-mail]) or [e-mail]). Occasional updates
are expected to appear in the TELECOM Digest archives as new or improved
information can be compiled. As this is a voluntary undertaking, updates
cannot be provided on any fixed schedule, and are often for one world
zone at a time.