Telephone numbers in Switzerland

Country Code: +41
International Call Prefix: 00
Trunk Prefix: 0

The Swiss telephone numbering plan describes the Telephone numbering plan in Switzerland. It has changed many times, the most recent major reorganisation being made by the Swiss Federal Office of Communications in March 2002.

Contents

Current Plan (E.164/2002)

The current plan, E.164/2002, has been in effect since 2002. The major change was the transition between an open dialing plan to a closed dialing plan (see Telephone numbering plan for a description of the two terms), i.e. the old area code is now also required for local calls. The plan has been amended few times, i.e. the transition of numbering zone 01 into 044.

National Destination Code

The national destination code (NDC) is the area code prefix for Swiss telephone numbers. Within Switzerland dial the 0 trunk code before the NDC. From abroad this 0 should not be dialled.

Usually a phone number is nine digits long (not including the initial 0 trunk code). There are two styles: 2 digits for NDC (after the initial 0) and 7 digits for the subscriber number, or 3 digits for NDC (after the initial 0) and 6 digits for the subscriber number, with a few exceptions described in the following table.

The numbers are portable between numbering zones (ZN) or between GSM/UTMS mobile operators, so an NDC does not imply that the subscriber is in a particular zone or that he uses a particular mobile operator.

NDC[1]

Short numbers[2][3]

Alternate Proposed Plan

Instead of E.164/2002, another more ambitious numbering plan was also proposed. In this plan the 0 prefix was discarded, and the area codes were defined differently, with 20 to 49 for geographic areas, 50 to 59 reserved, 60-69 for nationwide numbering, 70-79 for mobile services, 80-89 for shared cost and toll free numbers, and 90 for the premium rate service. The plan was abandoned because it required too many phone number and prefix changes, with associated high costs.

Changes

After 2002

The zone code 01 is replaced with 044 (Zurich)

Between 1996 to 2002 (plan 2002)

In 29 March 2002 the Swiss plan changed to a closed dialing plan, i.e. the zone prefix become mandatory also for local calls.

Until 1996 (plan 1996)

The previous plan removed a lot of zone prefixes and at the same time added the seventh digit in the phone numbers (usually a phone number (0cc) yx xx xx become (0dd) zzx xx xx).

References

  1. ^ OFCOM (2009-05-05). "Number blocks and codes". Federal Office of Communications. http://www.bakom.admin.ch/themen/telekom/00479/00604/index.html?lang=en. Retrieved 2009-05-05. 
  2. ^ eOFCOM (2009-05-05). "List of allocated numbers". Federal Office of Communications. https://www.eofcom.ch/searchSN.do?searchType=full&state=2. Retrieved 2009-05-05. 
  3. ^ Swisscom (2009-05-05). "Service Numbers". Swisscom. http://www.swisscom.com/solutions/en/index/product/servicenummern.htm. Retrieved 2009-05-05.