Local conventions for writing telephone numbers

Every country has different local conventions for writing telephone numbers. Writing a telephone number in a different format will look strange to a resident, and may lead to incorrect dialing when area codes are omitted for local calls.

All numbers on this page are written for dialing within that country, and do not include any international dialing codes. In examples, a numeric digit is used only if the digit is the same in every number, and letters to illustrate groups. X is used as a wildcard to represent any digits in lists of numbers.

North America

United States, Canada, and other NANP countries

24 countries and territories share the North American Numbering Plan, with a single country code and dialing plan. All area codes are the same length, so areas with many phone numbers overlay multiple area codes.

The traditional convention for phone numbers is (AAA) BBB-BBBB, where AAA is the area code and BBB-BBBB is the subscriber number. The format AAA-BBB-BBBB or sometimes 1-AAA-BBB-BBBB is often seen; the number 1 is the long-distance access code, and is usually required before the area code when calling long distance. Sometimes the stylized format of AAA.BBB.BBBB is seen, more common since the rise of the Internet and the dot-separated notation of domain names and their subdomains.

Since mandatory ten-digit dialing began in certain areas for long distance even "within" area codes around 1995 (in order to make a large new range of area codes available), and even for local calls in some metro areas, the notation in those areas has sometimes changed. The area code is now often prefixed as "AAA-" (no "1-"), or sometimes "AAA " (with only a space), instead of "(AAA) ". In metro Atlanta (the world's largest-area toll-free calling zoneFact|date=September 2008), it is common for example to see people write shorthand 4, 6, or 7, followed by ")" (end parenthesis) or "-" (hyphen), or sometimes "/" (forward slash) or just a space, instead of the full 404 (the city), 770 (the suburbs since 1995), or 678 (overlaid on both in 1998). This however will be complicated by GPSC's choice of 470 for the next overlay code.

Europe

France

French telephone numbers are ten digits long, and written in groups of two separated by spaces, for example, 0A AA AA AA AA.

Denmark

Danish telephone numbers are 8 digits long, and normally written in four groups of two separated by spaces, AA AA AA AA. In recent years it has also become common to write them in two groups of four, AAAA AAAA

Norway

Norwegian telephone numbers are 8 digits long. A number to a fixed line is written in four groups of two separated by spaces, AA AA AA AA. Cellphone numbers are written in three groups, AAA AA AAA. This makes it easy to determine if the B-number is SMS capable.

witzerland

Swiss telephone numbers are 10 digits long, and usually written 0AA BBB BB BB where 0AA is the "national destination code" and BBB BB BB is the subscriber number. Sometimes numbers are written +41 AA BBB BB BB to include Switzerland's country calling code. Certain nationwide destination codes, such as for toll-free or premium-rate telephone numbers, are written 0800 BBB BBB or 0900 BBB BBB. There are also "short numbers" for emergencies such as 112 that are written 1CC or 1CCC.

United Kingdom

United Kingdom telephone numbers are complex due to varying size of area code, and a history of inadequate changes to increase the number of available telephone numbers.

Numbers are formatted as 0AAAA BBBBBB, where 0AAAA is the STD (area) code, and BBBBBB is the subscriber code. However, both are variable length. Larger areas have shorter STD codes. The subscriber code is split into two blocks of four if it is eight digits long (eg 020 1234 5678).

The majority of area codes are five digits long, including the 0 prefix. Exceptions are 02X, 0113, 0114, 0115, 0116, 0117, 0121, 0131, 0141, 0151, 0161, 0191, 08XX and 09XX.

Oceania

Australia

Australian telephone numbers are 10 digits long, and can be written (0A) BBBB BBBB or 04MM MBB BBB (for mobile telephone numbers), where 0A is the optional "area code" and BBBB BBBB is the subscriber number. 04MM M are allocated per mobile network. When the number is to be seen by an international audience, it is written +61 A BBBB BBBB or +61 4MM MBB BBB. When written for a local audience, the optional area code is omitted.

outh America

Brazil

Brazil is divided into 67 two-digit geographical area codes, all of them with eight-digit numbers, in the format (AA) NNNN-NNNN. Phone lists can use NNNN NN NN. Telephones can also be written with carrier selection codes, in the format (0CCAA) NNNN-NNNN, and when a carrier number is not suggested, one can replace carrier code for xx or XX.