Telephone numbers in Israel

Until the 1990s, telephone numbers in Israel had 6 digits (except in its early days), and until the 2000s, there were 8 area codes allocated to Bezeq, by region. Currently numbers have seven digits and Bezeq controls 6 area codes - 02 (Jerusalem), 03 (Gush Dan), 04 and 06 (Haifa and northern areas) were merged, as well as 07 (south), 08 (Shfela) and 09 (Sharon). Israel's country calling code is +972.

With the influence of VOIP long distance was deregulated in Israel. According to the Israel Ministry of Communication a VOIP number may be ported to a landline carrier and vice versa providing the option to have, say, a northern number in the south of the country. Numbers may not be ported, say, from the north to the south of the country on the same kind of line (e.g., VOIP to VOIP or landline to landline). Mobile number portability between cellular providers was introduced in late 2007.

The format for calls to landlines within the same area code is XXX-XXXX. For calls to a landline outside the local area, the area code is prefixed and the format becomes (0Y) XXX-XXXX for calls to landlines, where "0Y" is the area code. The format for calls to mobile and VOIP lines is 0YZ-XXX-XXXX, where "0YZ" is the mobile or VOIP indicator. When calling from outside of Israel, the leading "0" in area codes is not dialed, and the format is +972-Y-XXX-XXXX for calls to landlines, or +972-YZ-XXX-XXXX for calls to mobile and VOIP lines.

Structure and format

Access codes

For calling from Israel to another country: choose operator, and dial its international access code, then dial destination country code and then the rest of the local number.

• 00 or + – short code (only registered customers)
• 012 – 012 Smile servce
• 013 – 013 Netvision service
• 014 – Bezeq International service
• 015 – Hallo 015 service
• 016 – Golan Telecom service
• 017 – Hot Mobile service
• 018 – Xfone service
• 019 – Telzar service
• 0110 – Home Cellular (Future Operator)
• 0101 – Free Telecom (Future Operator)

Area codes

The leading 0 trunk code is not dialed from abroad.
Due to mobile number portability, a mobile phone with a prefix of one provider can be associated with a different provider.

Geographic area codes

When dialing within one of the geographical area codes (02,03,04,08,09) the prefix can be dropped (so instead of dialing (03) xxx-xxxx you can dial xxx-xxxx).

In the geographic area codes, first digits of the local number are identifying service operator:

Mobile phones codes

Non-geographic nationwide area code (Landline and VoIP)

Special numbers

Special numbers include emergency and aid services, along with technical support and other provider services:^[2]

• 100 - Police
• 101 - Ambulance Service
• 102 - Fire Fighters
• 103 - Electric Corporation
• 106 - Municipal Call Center <in most cities>
• 107 - Municipal Call Center <in some cities>
• 108 - Municipal Call Center <in some cities>
• 109 - Municipal Call Center <in some cities>
• 110 - Automated Number Announcement Circuit
• 118 - Ministry of Social Affair's emergency service
• 1201 - Mental health first aid
• 1255 XXX - Hospital Information Center <only in times of emergency>
• 1212 XX XX - Telephone-Based poll and televoting
• 1200 XXX XXX - Televoting
• *XXXX - (Star and 4 digits) Speed dial service
• 1234 - Bezeq-Card service (Bezeq lines only)
• 1346 - Dial up access to ISP service
• 1455 - Speaking clock - Time and date in Israel and around the world
• 142 - Collect Call
• 144 - Telephone Listings Information
• 166 - Bezeq technical support
• 199 - Bezeq customer service
• 164 - Bezeq business customer service
• 1 599 XXX XXX - Business Toll
• 1 700 XXX XXX - Business Toll
• 1 80X XXX XXX - Toll Free
• 1 90X XXX XXX - Premium

• Note - The Israeli telecommunication infrastructure is available and used extensively in the Palestinian Territories too.

"Kosher" numbers

"Kosher" phones and networks are essentially phones with Haredi rabbinical approval that can be used for communication without entertainment functionality or connectivity. This is a line that has a pre-defined prefix and it is blocked to content that Haredi activists feel is not appropriate for their community. Such blocking includes cellular internet access, chat rooms, SMS, etc. It should not be imputed that other phones are not kosher according to Jewish law, as evidenced by the fact that a very large number - if not the majority - of observant Orthodox Jews worldwide do not restrict themselves to "kosher" phones; rather the description "kosher" phones is a loose one, implying an added level of stringency accepted by some communities.

Some mobile plans include a large allocation of minutes to kosher numbers, which are:

• 050 41X XXXX - Pelephone
• 052 71X XXXX - Cellcom, second range
• 052 76X XXXX - Cellcom, first range
• 053 31X XXXX - Hot Mobile, transferred from 057, by order of Ministry of Communications
• 054 84X XXXX - Orange, first range
• 054 85X XXXX - Orange, second range
• 057 31X XXXX - Mirs (in the past), prefix is now 053 Hot Mobile
• 058 32X XXXX - Golan Telecom (official kosher numbers; introduced 2014-01-01)
• 058 31X XXXX - Golan Telecom (not officially kosher)
• 058 37X XXXX - Golan Telecom (not officially kosher)

See also

• Telephone numbers in the Palestinian territories

References

1. ↑ Former prefix 057. Changed to 053 in November 2014.
2. ↑ Emergency numbers

External links

• Israel Ministry of Communication
• Presentation of E.164 National Numbering For Country Code 972 (Israel), Update August 2007, Israel Ministry of Communication
• Israel Ministry of Communications numbering program (Hebrew)
• Shortened business numbers (star numbers) at the Israel Ministry of Communications (Hebrew)
• Change of 057 prefix to 053 (Hebrew)