Telephone numbers in South Africa
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Country | South Africa |
| Continent | Africa |
| Regulator | ICASA |
| Type | Closed |
| Access codes | |
| Country calling code | +27 |
| International call prefix | 00 |
| Trunk prefix | 0 |
South Africa has switched to a closed numbering system. Within South Africa, from 16 January 2007 it became mandatory to dial the full 10 digit telephone number including the zero in the three-digit area code even for local calls (for example: 011 must be dialled from within Johannesburg). Area codes within the system are generally organised geographically. All telephone numbers are 9 digits long (but always prefixed by 0 for calls within South Africa), except for certain Telkom special services. When dialed from another country, the '0' is omitted and replaced with the appropriate international access code and the country code 27.
Numbers were initially allocated when South Africa had four provinces, meaning that ranges are now split across the current nine provinces. South-West Africa (including Walvis Bay) was integrated into the South African numbering plan.[1]
Following its independence as Namibia, direct dialling from South Africa was discontinued and replaced by international dialling with the +264 country code. For example, for a call from South Africa to Windhoek, before and after 1992:
Calls to Lesotho could be made using the access code 050 instead of the international code +266; for example, to call Maseru from South Africa, subscribers would dial 0501.[4]
Calls to Botswana, Swaziland and Zimbabwe could similarly be made using the regional codes 0192, 0194 and 0191, respectively, instead of the international codes +267, +268 and +263.[5]
Number ranges
00: International access code effective from 16 October 2006 and mandatory from 16 January 2007.
01: The old Transvaal province, currently comprising Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and part of the North West:
- 010: New overlay plan for Johannesburg
- 011: Witwatersrand region around Johannesburg, currently code for entire Greater Johannesburg
- 012: Pretoria and surrounding towns (also includes Brits)
- 013: Eastern Gauteng (Bronkhorstspruit) and Western and northern Mpumalanga: Middelburg, Witbank and Nelspruit
- 014: Northern North West and Southwestern Limpopo: Rustenburg and Modimolle
- 015: Northern and Eastern Limpopo: Polokwane
- 016: Vaal Triangle: Vereeniging, Vanderbijlpark and Sasolburg, which constitutes an anomaly, since Sasolburg isn't the old Transvaal.
- 017: Southern Mpumalanga: Ermelo
- 018: Southern North West: Lichtenburg, Potchefstroom and Klerksdorp
02: Western and Northern Cape:
- 021: Cape Town metropole and surrounds, including Stellenbosch, Somerset West and Gordon's Bay
- 022: Boland and West Coast: Malmesbury
- 023: Worcester and greater Karoo, including Beaufort West
- 024: Somerset West (Became 021 in 1996)
- 027: Namaqualand (Northern Cape): Vredendal, Calvinia, Clanwilliam, Springbok, Alexander Bay, Port Nolloth
- 028: Southern region: Swellendam and Caledon / Hermanus region.
03: KwaZulu-Natal:
- 031: Durban
- 032: KZN North coast region: Verulam, Tongaat, Ballito and Stanger
- 033: Pietermaritzburg and KwaZulu-Natal Midlands
- 034: Vryheid, Newcastle and Northern KZN
- 035: Zululand region: St. Lucia, Richards Bay, Ulundi
- 036: Drakensberg region: Ladysmith
- 039: South coast: Port Shepstone and interior, and Eastern Pondoland (in Eastern Cape)
04: Eastern Cape and eastern parts of the Western Cape:
- 040: Bhisho
- 041: Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage
- 042: Southern region: Humansdorp
- 043: East London and surrounds
- 044: Garden Route, including Oudtshoorn, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, Mossel Bay and George
- 045: Central region: Queenstown
- 046: Southern region: Grahamstown, Bathurst, Port Alfred, Kenton-on-Sea
- 047: Mthatha / most of previous Transkei
- 048: Northern region: Steynsburg
- 049: Western region: Graaff-Reinet
05: Free State and Northern Cape
- 051: Central and southern region: Bloemfontein, and Aliwal North in E Cape
- 053: Kimberley, eastern part of Northern Cape, far west of NW province
- 054: Upington, Gordonia region
- 056: Northern Free State: Kroonstad
- 057: Northern Free State: Welkom (Goldfields region)
- 058: Eastern Free State: Bethlehem
06: Cellular [6]
- 0603 - 0605: Cellular: Used by MTN
- 0606 - 0609: Cellular: Used by Vodacom
- 0610 - 0613: Cellular: Used by Cell C
- 0614: Cellular: Used by 8ta (Telkom)
- 0615: Cellular: Used by Cell C
- 0618 - 0624: Cellular: Used by Cell C
- 062: Cellular: Used by Vodacom
- 063: Cellular: Used by MTN
- 064: Cellular: Used by Cell C
- Cellular: Used by Cell C
07: Cellular
- 0710: MTN (spill-over from 083)
- 0711 - 0716: Vodacom (spill-over from 082)
- 0717 - 0719: MTN (spill-over from 083)
- 072: Vodacom (spill-over from 082)
- 073: MTN (spill-over from 083)
- 074: Cell C (Cell C has allocated 0741 to Virgin Mobile)
- 0741: Virgin Mobile as of June 2006 [7]
- 076: Vodacom (spill-over from 082)
- 078: MTN (spill-over from 083)
- 079: Vodacom (spill-over from 082)
08: Special services
- 080: FreeCall, Toll-free, called party pays
- 0810: Cellular: MTN
- 0811 - 0815: Telkom Mobile (8ta)
- 0816: WBS Mobile (should be noted that Vodacom and MTN both have terminated SMS interconnect with WBS so SMS messages to/from this number range are /dev/null'ed)
- 0817: Telkom Mobile (8ta)
- 0818: Cellular: Vodacom
- 082: Cellular: Vodacom
- 083: Cellular: MTN
- 083-9 Cellular rates to Telkom lines, reroutes call to a telkom line and pays number owner for received calls
- 084: Cellular: Cell C
- 085: Cellular: USAL license holders - Vodacom and MTN have some prefixes out of this range for their USAL offerings
- 086: Sharecall, MaxiCall and premium-rate services, calls can be routed to regional offices automatically
- 0860: Sharecall Land line callers pay local call, called party pays long distance if applicable
- 0861: MaxiCall caller always pay long distance for call even if routed to local office
- 0862 - 9: Premium rate caller pays increasing rate linked to last digit[8]
- 0862, 0865, 0866, 08673, 08774, 08676: Fax to Email caller always pay increasing rate linked to last digits
- 08622, 086294: Competition lines caller always pay premium rate
- 08671 - 08674: Information services caller always pay increasing rate linked to last digit
- 087: Value-added services (VoIP among others)
- 088: Pagers and Telkom CallAnswer voicemail
- 089: Maxinet, for polls and radio call-in services
Note that since 10 November 2006, mobile number portability was introduced in the cellular market. The cellular prefixes as above are therefore not strictly applicable anymore although they remain mostly unchanged.
09: Premium rate and machine related numbers [9][10]
- 090: Premium rate services
- 0902: Premium rated adult services [11][12]
- 091: Premium rate services
- 092: Premium rate services
- 096: Machine related services (14-digit numbers)
- 097: Machine related services (14-digit numbers)
- 098: Machine related services (14-digit numbers)
There are still some non-automated exchanges which use longer dialing codes, mostly for 'Farm Lines' and remote areas with operator assisted exchanges.
References
- ↑ South West Africa & Walvis Bay - Suidwes-Afrika & Walvisbaai, Department of Posts and Telecommunications, 1976
- ↑ Official South African Municipal Yearbook, S.A. Association of Municipal Employees, 1995, page 1161
- ↑ The phone book: Cape peninsula, Telkom, Universal Web Printers, 2007, page 49
- ↑ Lesotho, David Ambrose, Winchester Press, 1983, page 846
- ↑ Pretoria Telephone Directory, Department of Posts and Telecommunications, 1991, page 21
- ↑ Numbering plan
- ↑ Virgin Mobile South Africa
- ↑ "TELKOM SA LTD TELKOM TARIFF LIST 1 August 2009" (PDF). Retrieved 7 September 2010.
- ↑ New numbers for machines, premium rated services
- ↑ Numbering plan
- ↑ Phone sex services to get new number range in South Africa
- ↑ Numbering plan