Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!haven!decuac!netsys!vector!telecom-gateway From: praxis!cdh@uunet.uu.net (Chris Hayward) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: International Access Codes Around the World Message-ID: Date: 21 Aug 89 15:10:34 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 18 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us The UK code for international direct dialling (IDD) is 010, as opposed to 00 as adopted by many European countries. The reason for this, I believe, is as follows: In the days before IDD, <00> was used as a "special" STD code for calls from the UK (including Northern Ireland) to the Republic of Ireland. When IDD came along, it would have been politically insensitive (suicidal?) to make Eire calls "international", and rather than mess about changing existing codes and routings, the 010 had to be adopted for the IDD prefix. Is this history correct? I wouldn't be surprised if the cause of a common European IDD prefix is yet another victim of the mess that is Anglo-Irish politics :-( Chris Hayward Praxis Systems Bath (UK, I suppose I should say)