Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: "John R. Covert 30-May-1990 0816" Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: My List of World Wide Codes Message-ID: <8459@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 30 May 90 13:18:49 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 139 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 400, Message 1 of 6 Michael's list was actually not quite as correct or complete as the official list based on the CCITT Blue Book which I posted in V10#85 back in February. But since it is substantially complete, I'll not post that again, and will limit myself to a few comments: 259, though assigned to Zanzibar, is not in use. Zanzibar is reached via Tanzania, 255, with city code 54. This gives us a hint about what is likely to happen with Yemen. Since Aden was not diallable from any known western country, but Yemen was, it is likely that the expansion of service into the united country will use the Yemen code, but it is unlikely that the combined country will give up the extra code, keeping it reserved for future use. Though we don't know what will happen with Germany, there is the possibilty that Germany will make the East German codes diallable as West German codes by prefixing them with "3" ("30" is currently the only "3" code in use in West Germany, and is used for Berlin). But this does not mean that Germany will give up 37. Michael lists 269 as Mayotte. Now we get into how politics affects the assignment of country codes. Mayotte is an island in a group of islands known as the Comoros Islands. In 1975, the Comoros unilaterally declared independence from France and formed the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoros. The island of Mayotte voted to remain part of France, an action which is not recognized by the Comoros, nor by the United Nations, which tends to look askance at colonialism, even when the residents indicate that they want to remain part of a first world country. Thus the CCITT Blue Book lists the code as assigned to the Comoros, though, in fact, it is only usable to reach Mayotte, since the rest of the Comoros have not made any telephonic progress since separating from France. (Another example of politics affecting the assignment of country codes is the fact that the CCITT does not list the fact that most countries use "886" to reach Taiwan. When Taiwan first became diallable, it was dialled using "86", since it was the U.N. member at the time. It lost the code as part of being replaced in the U.N. with PRC representatives. The PRC has informed the CCITT that "866" has been assigned to Taiwan, but I would not expect anyone to use that instead of "886".) Continuing with far-flung parts of France, Michael lists 590 as Guadeloupe, but 596 as "French Antilles" which is not really correct. The French Antilles consist of the two French Departments of Guadeloupe and Martinique. Unlike Mayotte, which is a territory, these two departments are as much a part of France as any other department in metropolitan France. 590 is Guadeloupe, which includes the French side of St. Martin, the island of St. Barthelemy, the islande of Marie-Galante, and Guadeloupe itself. 596 is just Martinique. There is still six digit dialing between 590 and 596, though the correct code must be dialled from outside. BTW, dialling metropolitan France from these islands is not done by dialling the international access code "19" and then "33", since the French dialling pattern uses that sequence followed by another country code to indicate that you want the French overseas operator for that country. Instead, you dial as within France: just "16" and the number (with the leading "1" for the Paris region). 670 is listed as "Mariana Islands" but is in fact the "Northern Mariana Islands" including the principal island of Saipan. Michael's list does not include two assignments that I suspect may not be used for a while, if ever. San Marino, though still diallable with the Italian country code 39 and city code 541 has been assigned its own code: 295. And Trinidad and Tobago has been assigned 296, although the manager of their network planning department has told me that they have no plans to leave the North American Numbering Plan area code 809 -- they just asked for the code and got it. And finally, though not confirmed, Bhutan has reportedly been assigned the code 975. A backwards country from both a transportation and communications standpoint, it is not likely to be diallable soon. The moderator added a note that Michael's list included only diallable countries. In fact, with the exceptions noted above, it included all countries which have codes assigned, whether diallable or not. The only place listed as a political entity in the Britannica 1990 Book of the Year which does not have a code assigned is Pitcairn Island. There are a large number of countries not diallable, and, as a reader from Australia pointed out, the list of diallable countries differs from country to country. It's not even the same between the U.S. and Canada. For example, Canada (and most of the rest of the world) can dial Cuba (53), whereas the U.S. can only dial Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Station (53 99), which is not dialable from anywhere else! On the other hand, Canada cannot dial St. Pierre and Miquelon (508) even though it's only a couple of miles away from the coast, yet most of the rest of the world can! The following list of codes includes all of those codes dialable from the U.S. via the major carriers. AT&T serves the most countries; but Sprint makes the appearance of doing so by sending calls to countries it does not serve via AT&T circuits. In addition, there are three places to which AT&T only provides operator service, whereas Sprint provides direct dial service. These are indicated in parens. The problem is that Sprint has never notified the local operating companies that these codes should be opened in local central offices; thus they are not diallable except in a few places (mostly U.S. West) where the local operating company has decided to put all codes in CCITT E.163 in, whether anyone serves them or not. It should also be noted that AT&T serves every country in the world, although those not listed are served by operators only, whereas Sprint and other OCCs only serve diallable countries. AT&T has announced that dial service to Mayotte (currently Sprint only) is coming. 20 212 213 216 218 220 221 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 237 238 241 243 247 248 250 251 253 254 255 256 260 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 (269) 27 297 298 299 30 31 32 33 34 350 351 352 353 354 356 357 358 359 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 51 52 5399 54 55 56 57 58 590 591 592 593 594 595 596 597 598 599 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 670 671 673 (674) 675 676 (677) 679 684 685 686 687 689 691 692 7 81 82 852 853 86 871 872 873 880 886 90 91 92 94 95 960 962 964 965 966 967 968 971 972 973 974 977 98 And finally, Colin Plumb asks which countries are part of the North American Intergrated Numbering Plan Area (code 1). They are: Canada, USA including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, Jamaica, Barbados, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Bahamas, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Christopher and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines (Bequia, Mustique, Prune (Palm) Island, Union Island), Trinidad and Tobago. What you will note about this list is that it includes the USA plus all members of the British Commonwealth in the Caribbean and North Atlantic. This definitively (at least for now) answers the question of why some places are in +1 809 and why some have their own code. /john P.S.: Michael's other list indicates that 905 and 706 "were" Mexico. From his point of view, outside the U.S., they never were. From the U.S. they still are and will be until discontinued in February 1991.