Telephone numbers in the Netherlands
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A telephone number in the Netherlands is a sequence of usually 10 decimal digits (0-9) that is used for identifying a destination telephone line in the Dutch telephone network. A Dutch phone number has a particular structure, consisting of an area code (three or four digits) and a subscriber number (six or seven digits). The Netherlands also has non-geographical numbers, used for services and for mobile phones. The country calling code of the Netherlands is +31 (or 0031), and the leading 0 of the area code is dropped when calling from abroad.
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[edit] Overview and history
Country Code: 31
International Call Prefix: 00
In the Netherlands, the area codes are — excluding the leading '0' — two or three digits long. Since renumbering in 1996, all regular telephone numbers have ten digits including area code and the leading 0. Larger towns and cities have two digit area codes permitting a larger number of local telephone numbers.
010: Rotterdam 013: Tilburg 015: Delft 020: Amsterdam 023: Haarlem 024: Nijmegen 026: Arnhem 030: Utrecht 033: Amersfoort 035: Hilversum 036: Almere 040: Eindhoven 043: Maastricht 050: Groningen 053: Enschede 055: Apeldoorn 058: Leeuwarden 0599: Westdorp 06: mobile phone number 066: mobile pagers 06760: internet access number 070: The Hague 071: Leiden 072: Alkmaar 073: 's-Hertogenbosch 074: Hengelo 075: Zaandam 076: Breda 077: Venlo 078: Dordrecht 079: Zoetermeer 0800: toll free number 084: location independent (used mostly for fax-to-email and voicemail services) 087: location independent 088: location independent (for companies) 0878: location independent (voice over IP) 0900: premium rate, information 0906: premium rate, erotic 0909: premium rate, entertainment 112: emergency services number 14: public authorities 14015: municipality of Delft 18xx: number information
066, 084 and 087 are often used by scammers, because they are easy and cheap to register and make identification very hard.
Previously, 06-0, 06-1000 and 06-4 were used for toll-free numbers, 06-8 for shared cost, 06-9 for premium rate, and other 06 for mobile numbers. 09 was used as the international access code before this changed to 00. The emergency number used to be 06-11.
[edit] Definitions
- Geographical code - A number meant for geographically determined areas
- Non-geographical code - A number meant for non-geographically determined destinations (services and mobile phones)
- Area code - The first three or four digits of a geographical code
- Service code - The first digits of a non-geographical code, used to determine the category of service
- Subscriber number - The part of a geographical code behind the area code or the part of the non-geographical code behind the service code.
[edit] Notation
Dutch geographic codes consist of 9 digits. The area code consists of 2 or 3 digits (depending on the size of the area, larger areas have 2 digits, smaller areas have 3 digits), followed by 7 or 6 digits in the subscriber number. Dutch mobile phone numbers consist of 9 digits also, They start with 06, followed by 8 digits.
Dutch non-geographic codes are different from geographic codes. The non-geographic codes in the Netherlands are 06 (Mobile phones and pagers), 0800 (Free service numbers), 084 and 087 (Voicemail and Virtual Private Numbers),088 (Large companies with more than one address), 0900 (Paid information numbers), 0906 (Adult lines) and 0909 (Entertainment).
0800 numbers can always be dialled for free, even from (public) payphones; other numbers starting with 08 are not free.
The non-geographic codes in the Netherlands (besides 06) don't have a fixed number of digits, but are usually kept as short as possible, for the sake of convenience.
Geographic numbers are allocated in blocks to different telecommunications providers. However, a telephone number from a block allocated to a certain provider may not be serviced by that provider anymore due to number portability; subscribers who switch providers can take their number with them.
The emergency number in the Netherlands is 112. GSM mobile phones may accept a different number to dial into the emergency services (such as 999, 000 or 911), depending on their firmware. Directory assistance is available at 1888 (speech recognition) or 1850 (human, more expensive).
[edit] Dutch area codes
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The Ministry of Economic Affairs is responsible for the Dutch Numbering plan.
- The Independent Postal and Telecommunications Authority (OPTA ) manages the available telephone and other numbers and assigns these to telecommunication companies, as well as being the regulatory body governing telecommunications providers in The Netherlands.
- De Telefoongids KPN telephone directory, combined white pages and yellow pages
