Just a quick question for non-Brits, my boss thinks that people don't understand the convention for international dialing codes, ie our number starts 0890 908 ..., but if we listed it as an international number we'd write it +44 890 908 ....

Ignoring whether that belief is true (as you're mostly an intelligent bunch), is it true that the international dialing code is 00 from all countries, so to reach the UK you would dial 00 44 890 908 ... whether you're in Luxumberg or Kentucky?

I dont have a clue what these codes are and they annoy me. I just know that when I see +44 I usually just replace it with 0.

Its the sort of thing I would have to look up or Wiki if I needed to use them.

Look at it this way, how many people use them regularly? - Probably not very many.

Any do people ever get taught or shown them? - Not likely.

You made me curious about it, so:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L ... ternational_call_prefixes

Apparently 00 is not standard.

Woohoo, Becky 1 Boss 0 Cheers !

One thing i didnt understand with International dialing codes is that 07 829 becomes +64 7 829 not +64 07 829. I found that out the hard way :doh:

Perhaps that is what you boss was trying to get at as well?

At work, we always have our number as +44 (0) 191 ........ on paperwork and promotional gubbins to try and avoid any confusion.

Quote from Bean0 :

At work, we always have our number as +44 (0) 191 ........ on paperwork and promotional gubbins to try and avoid any confusion.

Let's face it, Geordie's are thick, they need all the help they can get.

Eh! Divvn't call us thick! Glass em, wor Biffa!

Quote from Bob Smith :

Let's face it, Geordie's are thick, they need all the help they can get.

Is that meant to be funny, because it isn't.

I've seen the standard format on lots of companys' stationary like this; +44 (0)191 ...

Quote from sil3ntwar :

One thing i didnt understand with International dialing codes is that 07 829 becomes +64 7 829 not +64 07 829

Just interpret it as the 0 telling the exchange you want a national number. Hence your call into another country doesn't need the first 0, since you already dialled that country

Well you just know the international prefixes you use...
For example I know +44(England), +33(France), +30(Greece) and +32(Belgium)...(I have moved alot in my life even at 20 :shrug
And yes almost in every case you remove the first 0 that is for national numbers...The worst thing is for house numbers, where you have to add yet another prefix...

As far as I know, + is 00 and then you dial the country code and then the phone number....
+44 (0044) = UK
+45 (0045) = Denmark?
+46 (0046)= Sweden
+47 (0047) = Norway
+48 (0048) = Finland?

Like, if I want to call a Norwegian number while am in Norway, I can type 0047 and then the phone number, but then again, that would be 4 extra numbers instead of the 8 digits numbers the Norwegian phone numbers have.

Quote from Bean0 :

At work, we always have our number as +44 (0) 191 ........ on paperwork and promotional gubbins to try and avoid any confusion.

That's the standard/accepted way to write numbers with international prefixes, anyway

One complication: US telecomms services (of which there are several choices) have different starting codes to access better overseas rates, so although the + = 00 convention holds good for most of the planet, yet again the Yanks manage to add some unnecessary complications into the subject. Bless them.