Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: dik@boring.cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Telecommunications in Belgium - Part 2 - Numbering and dialing Message-ID: Date: 9 Oct 89 16:03:46 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: CWI, Amsterdam Lines: 52 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 439, message 3 of 8 In article af@sei.ucl.ac.be (Alain FONTAINE (Postmaster - NAD)) writes: > Zone numbers include either two or three digits, including the leading > zero. The following numbers are currently in use : 010->016, 019, 02, > 03, 041, 050->059, 060->069, 071, 080->087, 091. The two zones with two > digits are big zones, and numbers inside them have seven digits (spelled > xxx.xx.xx) ; the other zones are smaller, and numbers there only have 6 > digits (spelled xx.xx.xx). There is thus room for n * 10e8 different > numbers (where n is < 1, maybe in the 0.7->0.9 range). Zones 041, 071 > and 091 are centered on big towns, and could potentially become big > ones some day. I suppose this is the reason why the other numbers > starting with 04, 07 and 09 have not been used. This is an historical artifact. Some (ten?) years ago all telephone numbers in Belgium were changed. Before that time a telephone number consisted of a two digit area code (including leading zero) and a 6 digit local number, or a three digit area code plus a 5 digit local number. So a telephone number was always 8 digits including area code. This changed overnight throughout Belgium to a telephone number of 9 digits including area code. In most places the local number got an additional digit. The exceptions were the cities with area codes (at that time) of 04, 07 and 09; there the area code was changed and the local number unchanged. > Special services, including various specialized operators, DA, etc have > numbers starting with a '1', and are always dialed locally. There are > the '100' and '101' national emergency numbers (resp. fire/ambulance and > police). All others have 4 digits. For most services, the second digit > is '2' or '3', depending on the language you wish to use (French or > Dutch). When I was in Belgium this summer I checked it, but as far as I know all special numbers are 3 digits starting with either 1 or 9. I remember something like 985 information in French and 995 information in Dutch. But I believe this is different for the different areas. I.e. some areas do not have information in French, while others do not have it in Dutch while a few in the German speaking part have also German numbers. > Rotary dials are standard 1 to 0. If letters have been used, that's very > long ago : the telephone that used to sit in my parent's house, > installed in the early 50's, did not have letters... Like most places in Europe letters were not used very much. I remember a Belgian telephone that had the French layout for letters (that was some 30 years ago), but these letters were never used. The only reason was probably that the telephone was French made. (The French layout is similar to USA/UK layout, except for the position of letter O, which was, together with Q and Z, positioned with digit 0.) dik t. winter, cwi, amsterdam, nederland INTERNET : dik@cwi.nl BITNET/EARN: dik@mcvax