Romania telephone area codes
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Country Code: 40 Access code: 0.
As of 2002 the area codes are county codes. They are formed by two digits (30-69) for the 41 counties, and 1 for Bucharest. Depending on the company that operates the ground line, before the county code another digit is used (2 for Romtelecom, 3 for most of the other landline telephony providers: Astral Telecom, RCS&RDS, etc).
Mobile phone numbers have a two digit code, regardless of the geographical area in which the user resides. The first digit of the code is a seven, and the second one gives the network:72 for Vodafone; 74 for Orange; 76 for Cosmote; 78 for Zapp Mobile.
The dialling plan for mobile networks (numbers starting with 07) and new landline operators (numbers starting with 03) is closed; all subscriber numbers must be dialled in full. For landline numbers starting with 02, the dialling plan is open; the trunk code and area code can be omitted if the caller is in the same area code as the callee. This will change soon; starting 3 May 2008, all landline numbers must be dialled in full[1].
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[edit] History
[edit] Land Lines
During the Communist years, there was no direct international access. Numbers had 5 digits except for Bucharest, where numbers were 6 digits long. Area code started with 9 and were 2 digits long for Bucharest (90-xxx-xxx) and 3 digits long (9pp-xx-xxx) for the rest of the country. The Bucharest surrounding area had the area code 909, followed by 5 digits number. Somewhere in the end of the 80'ies, some big cities' area codes were upgraded, including the last digit of the area code into the local number, thus making it 6-digits long. However, dialing outside the city implied using the area code, even when the caller and the callee had the same area code. For example, a number from Iaşi was 981-xx-xxx, then it became 98-1xx-xxx. A number from Suceava was 982-xx-xxx, but then it became 98-2xx-xxx. Apart from Bucharest, Brasov was the first city to have 6-digit numbers.
Many smaller town or rural area calling implied using manual commutation circuits operated by humans.
Short numbers for special services, like cab companies, were three digits long, starting with 0:
- 00 used for checking the phone line.
- 01, later 011 local exchange operator (free number)
- 02, later 021 telephone line service (possibly telephone service, if bought or rented from the telephone company)
- 023 elevators service (only in bucharest)
- 03, later 031 telephone directory
- 05, later 051 informations
- 055 police (unknown implementation on 2-digit codes)
- 058 exact time (from 10 to 10 seconds)
- 059 weather forecast (recorded message)
- 06, later 061 ambulance (free number)
- 07, later 071 international calls via operator
- 08, later 081 fire brigade (free number)
- 09, later 091 domestic calls via operator (reverse charge or calls to manual commutation lines)
After 1989, the then-monopolistic state-owned phone company started a process of upgrading its facilities. In 1992, it started increasing the size of a number to 7 digits in Bucharest and 6 digits in the rest of the country and by changing the prefixing scheme. The long distance code was changed from 9 to 0, the area code for Bucharest became 01, while to the rest of the country was temporarily given a 0 before the older area codes. For a short period, the surrounding of Bucharest (now Ilfov county) had the area code 0179, which has been eventually included into the Bucharest numbering plan as 01-79x-xxxx. The 02 code was used for calls to the Republic of Moldova.
In 1993, the other couties were given new area codes (30 to 69). The previous area code system did not follow the country administrative regions. Outside county dialing required a national access code 0 (01-xxx-xxxx to Bucharest and 0pp-xxx-xxx for the rest of the country). In-county calling could be done without prefixes at all (xxx-xxxx to Bucharest and xxx-xxx for the rest of the country). Calling from outside meant +40-1-xxx-xxxx for Bucharest and +40-pp-xxx-xxx for the rest of the country. An international access code for Romanians calling abroad, 00, was adopted. County codes were selected on a geographical order, starting with northern Moldavia (Suceava County had 30), then going southwards to eastern Wallachia, than westwards to Banat, than northern Transylvania and it ends in the southern Transylvania, until the biggest prefix , 69 (used for Sibiu County). The short numbers for special services started with 9 and were three digits long. Each town or county has it own special services, callable with the same number throughout the country.
[edit] Mobile Numbers
The first mobile company was Telemobil (an ancestor of Zapp) and it started its service in 1993 using the analogue NMT technology. The numbers for this network were using the area code 018-5xx-xxx and 018-6xx-xxx. As 01 was the area code for Bucharest, the mobile numbers had to be dialed with the area code included, even from Bucharest. However, dialing codes like 8888 from Bucharest would result in strange noises on the phone, or at best, the busy tone. Somewhere around 1998, Telemobil changed its technology to LEMS and operated under the brand name SunTel. The service has proven ineffective and has been changed to the current technology used under the name Zapp Mobile. Since SunTel, the area code has been changed from 018 to 098 (now 0788).
In 1996, the first private phone companies, Connex and Dialog, were allotted from the remaining prefixes, which were county-like, 2 digits, prefixes. In the beginning, Connex got the prefix 92 and Dialog got 94. No other change happened, except that calling from a mobile to another mobile or landline implied the use of the national code, the area code (be it one of the regular ones or one of the new '9p'-series one) and the regular phone number, like a regular inter-county call, even if the caller and the callee had the same area code. Calling a Connex mobile from any phone in the country was 0-92-xxx-xxx. Afterwards, Connex also got 91 and 93 area codes, Dialog got 95 and 90, the newly-founded Zapp Mobile got 98, and Cosmorom 96. Short numbers became were now allowed in both the older form and in 4 digits long forms, both with a leading 9.
[edit] Toll-free and premium rate
At the same time, no-charge numbers were allocated to special area codes or to the Bucharest area code, looking like 01800-xxxx . Under a special agreement, even before this reform, foreign operators could be reached at various numbers, usually in the area code 800 (AT&T used 01800-1800). The extra-charge numbers were allotted in the area code 0189, being called like 0189-xxx-xxx (mandatory national access code). This has been extended to all area codes, as 0pp-89x-xxx, and callers could dial them without the area codes, like the regular local calls. This made them too accessible to children and sometimes telephone lines were hijacked to make calls to these services, then to be charged to the line subscribers who never made these calls by themselves. It was very customary to the aggressive advertising to write the costs of the services with small fonts, likely unreadable on the TV screen, then announcing the first 20 seconds free, writing the "free" word in bigger size, to induce the idea of the calls being all free.
One of the most popular premium rate numbering class was (01)8989-xxx, mostly used for media services and TV games. Therefore, the premium rate numbers were mostly known as "8989".
The internet dial-up services used similar numbers, like (01)893-xxxx and (0pp)890-xxx or (0pp)893-xxxx. Some premium-rate internet dial-up services used (01)899-xxxx. However, these services were charged at most twice or three times a local call, unless called from a different area.
For a short time before the current numbering plan, two area codes were implemented for toll-free numbers (080-xxx-xxx) and premium rate numbers (089-xxx-xxx). However, until the implementation of the current numbering plan, all the 018xx and 0xx89 numbers remained unchanged. A special call barring service has been introduced to prevent fraudulent calls to premium rate services. Even today there still are local numbers starting with 89, but only for internet dial-up, and they are migrating to the new area code 0870.
Usually mobile phone users and abroad callers could not and cannot access no-charge or extra-charge numbers. Extra-charge SMS were sent to three digits numbers, each company having its own system.
[edit] Present Day Telephone Codes
Main article: Telephone numbers in Romania
Due to what was seen as more affordable, landline usage started to drop as mobile phones market was growing fast. Mobile phone companies were running out of numbers, as both the main mobile companies claimed million after million of subscribers. Also, due to approaching EU join, the state-owned company was going to lose the landline monopoly. A 2002 reform modified the system to an 10 digits system, starting with the leading national access code 0 (which is dropped when calling from outside Romania and replaced with +40):
- the landline Romtelecom numbers gained a 2 in front of the area code (a Bucharest number became 021-xxx-xxxx and the other regions got numbers like 02pp-xxx-xxxx)
- the new landline companies were granted new area codes starting with 3, e.g. an Astral Telecom landline number will be 03pp-xxx-xxx, with the same 2-digit county code as Romtelecom (or the same 1 for Bucharest)
- the mobile companies got an extra digit in the area code by replacing the leading 9 with a company specific prefix like 72 for Connex (now Connex-Vodafone), 74 for Dialog (now Orange Romania) etc.; a Connex-Vodafone number will become 072p-xxx-xxx
- no-charge number area codes is 800 (like 0-800-xxx-xxx)
- extra-charge numbers are starting with 021-89, like a subset of the numbers owned by Romtelecom in Bucharest.
Most VoIP providers (SmartCall, TelefonIP) offer numbers bought from the wholesale service of Romtelecom. For charging and dialing reasons, these numbers appear to belong to Romtelecom to all other telephony providers.
Calling from Romania to Romania usually implies using the full 10 digits number. The only exception is when Romtelecom subscribers call inside their area code - they can drop the leading 0 and the area code (a number becomes xxx-xxxx in Bucharest and xxx-xxx in the rest of the country). Short numbers for special services and for extra-charge SMS are invariable.
Romania joined the European initiative for a continent wide emergency number, 112, which replaced the 955 for Police, 961 for Ambulance and 981 for Firefighters.
