How do you like to read a phone number?

Ben shadroth at gmail.com
Tue Dec 30 02:07:37 CET 2008


On Mon, Dec 29, 2008 at 11:52 PM, clare johnstone <claregj at gmail.com> wrote:
> Well he did say "international", and I do think Australians are
> getting used to the idea of what "country codes" are for and how to
> dial the numbers.

I wouldn't bet on it, we're still pretty backward :-)

number patterns I'm familiar with (already mostly noted by above posters)

in international format:
+61 n XXXX XXXX for fixed line n=(2,3,5,7 or 8)
+61 4XX XXX XXX for mobile.

other notes:

calling Internationally from Australia the + is replaced with 0011
automatically. obviously the + form is preferred as it can be used
anywhere.

XXXX XXXX (fixed line from within area)
0n XXXX XXXX - for normal fixed line phones:

0=national prefix, (2,3,5,7 or 8) *the 5 is not in use now, but may be
used for VoIP phones in the future.
numbers can be broken down to identify states and areas if you wish,
eg. it could say ACT for all numbers starting with 0262

* 04XX XXX XXX - mobile phones, do not break these up like fixed line
phones. the second and third digit could once identify the carrier but
with number portability this is no longer the case.

IMPORTANT - Australians will have these in their phones:

"smartnumbers" only for use within Australia - not compatible with
international prefix.
local call rate:
13X XXX
13 XX XX (alternative form)
13 XXXX (least used form, but it is the one in the official doco).
1300 XXX XXX
free (from fixed lines):
1800 XXX XXX
premium rate (competitions, phone sex, etc.)
190X XXX XXX

other special numbers (eg. directory assistance) starting with 12 and
of no set length are all run together, eg:
12XXXX
12XXX
12XX
12X


if they are really long, it would probably be good to break them up,
usually these numbers are used only for testing purposes by the phone
companies, but enforcing a 3 digit break from right hand side could be
smart, eg:
12X XXX XXX XXX XXX etc.

additionally the carriers will have special numbers for voicemail etc. eg;
111
333
321, etc.

emergency, maybe good to highlight this in some way
000 - Australia's emergency number, pretty sure this only works with
SIM card and maybe only on your network.
112 - works in phone even without SIM card, dials on any network.




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