Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!bellcore!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: af@sei.ucl.ac.be (Alain FONTAINE (Postmaster - NAD)) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Telecommunications in Belgium - Part 2 - Numbering and dialing Message-ID: Date: 16 Oct 89 15:34:57 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 50 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 458, message 6 of 10 On 9 Oct 89 16:03:46 GMT you said: >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. The historical note is correct (it was done nicely, if I remember correctly). And since then, no new area number has been attributed. And I still believe that we could see a 04, 07 or 09 zone again some day... >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. Three digit numbers for special services were replaced on October 30, 1987 by the new numbers I described, all over the country. It may be that the 995 (French) and 975 (Dutch) for information did remain as aliases for those poor stangers who come in Belgium once in a while, and insist on relying on their old notes instead of getting up to date information from, say, a telephone directory. Is that not nice of us??? There is no technical reason to explain the fact that service is not available in any language all over the country : pure politics: _(. >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.) The letters have been used much more in France. When, in the early sixties, we were listening to some French radio stations, we always heard telephone numbers (in Paris) starting with three letters (exchange name) and then, uh, four digits. /AF [Moderator's Note: My favorite Paris exchange was 'OPEra'. PT]