Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!dsinc!nucsrl!telecom-request From: hpa@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Peter Anvin) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: The Correct Way to Write Your Phone Number Message-ID: Date: 10 Mar 91 21:22:39 GMT Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Organization: Northwestern University Lines: 41 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 196, Message 1 of 12 In article John R. Covert writes: > Interestingly enough, this convention is REVERSED in the United Kingdom: > 071-402 7633 [A hotel I once stayed at in the Bayswater district, please > don't call them unless you want to do business with them.] > The thought there, perhaps, is that the hyphen acts as a separator. In my native country of Sweden, phone numbers are written as: 08-736 91 27 (seven-digit numbers only available in 08 = Stockholm) 021-13 25 05 (six-digit numbers available in most cities) 0220-432 11 (five-digit numbers for rural or semi-rural areas) The hyphen works as a separator, spaces do not, and the "area code" marker zero is included in the area code. The number is five to seven digits, the area code two to four; combined no more, but possibly less than nine digits. A two or three-digit area code can have different number length in different areas, depending on prefix, for example 08 (Stockholm) have seven-digit numbers in all 6XX and 7XX exchanges, otherwise six-digit numbers; 021 (V{ster}s) has six-digit numbers in the 1X and 3X exchanges used in V{ster}s itself, five-digit numbers in the other exchanges for the surrounding rural areas). Originally up to only ten or twelve years ago you had to wait for a new dialtone after the area code. You *still* have to do that on international calls after the country code: 009 1 708 492 1175 ^^^ International prefix The international way of writing Swedish phone numbers would be: +46 21 132505 for 021-13 25 05. hpa = H. Peter Anvin (in case you wondered) * Heja Sverige! INTERNET: hpa@casbah.acns.nwu.edu FIDONET: 1:115/989.4 HAM RADIO: N9ITP, SM4TKN RBBSNET: 8:970/101.4