Telephone numbers in Romania
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Country Code: 40
International Call Prefix: 00
In the last years, landline usage started to drop as the mobile phones market was growing fast. Mobile phone companies were running out of numbers, as both the main mobile companies claimed millions 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, of which the first is always a national access code 0. The first 4 digits, including the leading 0, give the area code, in the format 0ZYX, where X, Y are digits from 0 to 9 and Z is a digit from 2 to 9. The georgaphic area codes for Bucharest are 0Z1, with a digit less than all the other area codes and an extra digit to the local number. For example, the Romtelecom area code for Bucharest is 021-xxx-xxxx, and for Neamt County is 0233-xxx-xxx.
The Z digit gives the type of the area code:
- Z=2 and 3 means a landline number; the YX code is 1 (with extra digit for local number) for Bucharest, from 30 to 79 for a county code, and above for non-geographic landline numbers
- Z=7 (and possibly 6 in the future) means a mobile number; 070p-xxxxxx numbers are reserved for virtual operators, while 071p-xxxxxx to 079p-xxxxxx are reserved for certain mobile company code; mobile number portability is planned, but not yet implemented
- Z=8 means a toll-free (0800-xxxxxx), shared cost, personal numbering, virtual cards, pre-paid cards, and internet dial-up numbers
- Z=9 means a premium-rate number, like 0900-xxx-xxx; business and financial informations and service use 0903-xxx-xxx and adult entertainment use 0906-xxx-xxx
Most new landline companies like Astral Telecom or Romania Data Systems(RDS), were granted new area codes with Z=3, e.g. 031-xxx-xxxx for Bucharest, and 03pp-xxx-xxx for the rest of the country. Because these area codes are shared between more companies, the entire number must be dialed, even within the same network.
The numbers with Z=2, e.g. 021-xxx-xxxx or 02pp-xxx-xxx belong almost exclusively to Romtelecom. However, smaller companies were granted numbers with this area codee like 021-59x-xxxx, and the local numbers are assigned in descending order of the first 3 digits, like (599xxxx, 598xxxx... or 529xxxx, 528xxxx...). Within Romtelecom, local numbers are always dialed without area codes, but the numbers not from Romtelecom must always be dialed with the area codes, even it is the same one. In Bucharest, local numbers starting with 5 were not used by Romtelecom, hence the usage of this digit. For other counties, if 5 had not been used by Romtelecom, it is preferred for the first digit of numbers of other companies. There are few companies requesting numbering resources with Z=2, and in most cases the companies provide local service only and do not extend their network in the whole country.
The mobile companies use area codes starting with 7: 72 and 73 for Vodafone Romania (previously branded as Connex), 74 and 75 for Orange Romania (previously branded as Dialog), 76 for Cosmote Romania (previously branded as Cosmorom), 78 for Zapp etc.; a Vodafone number will be 072p-xxx-xxx. RDS, starting their own mobile network, uses 77.
Free phone numbers start with 800 (like 0-800-xxx-xxx). Strangely, some companies to whom a numbering class is allocated may not grant toll-free access to those numbers for other networks. Therefore, sometimes a "toll-free" number is advertised as "toll free only within some operator".
Some 08pp codes are used for various services, like:
- 0801 for shared-cost numbers
- 0802 for personal numbering
- 0806 for virtual cards
- 0807 for pre-paid cards
- 087p for Internet dial-up; for the moment, only 0870 is used
Extra-charge numbers start with 90p, with some service types with their own area codes, like business and financial informations (0903) and adult entertainment (0906). There are few used area codes in the 09pp range, the rest of them is stated as reserved, unlike for the 08pp range, which holds more service types, either toll-free or not.
The former extra-charge numbers are starting with 021-89-xxxxx for Bucharest and 02xx-89x-xxx for the other regions, and they are a subset of the numbers owned by Romtelecom. Currently these numbers are sometimes used for premium rate or normal Internet dial-up services. The usage of this numbers for such services is however discouraged, as the new area code for Internet dial-up is 0870. There are some dial-up services using this numbers, and most of them begin with (021- or 02pp-)893 or 899.
Calling from Romania to Romania usually implies using the full 10 digits number, while Romtelecom subscribers can call inside their area code dropping the leading 0 and the area code (a number becomes just xxx-xxxx in Bucharest and xxx-xxx for the rest of the country). Romtelecom county codes were chosen on a geographical order, starting with northern Moldavia (Suceava County had 30), then going southwards to eastern Wallachia, than westwards to southern Transylvania, than northwards, closing the circle with the highest prefix, 69 (used for Sibiu County). These county codes were extended to all landline area codes.
Extra-charge SMS are sent to three or four digits numbers, each company having its own system.
Short numbers are allowed in both the 3 digits and in 4 digits forms, both with a leading 9, like 981 for the fire brigade, 961 for ambulance, 955 for police or 9xxx for various companies, including taxi, medical services, guards, informations and others. Each town or county has it own special services, like firefighters, police, with the same number. The station to which these calls are directed is chosen based on location. Unlike for Bucharest, other regions use short numbers with 3 digits only, including the leading 9. These services are provided by Romtelecom, therefore the area code must be dialed before the number when calling from other network.
The short local numbers which are the same in the whole country are:
- 921 Romtelecom phone line service
- 922 and 925 Romtelecom devices service (for phones and other equipment bought or rented from Romtelecom)
- 923(x) or 926(x) elevator service, more companies in Bucharest
- 928(1) former local gas company; new companies use other numbers; in Bucharest 928x for more gas companies
- 929 electricity company; 9291 for Bucharest and 9292 for surrounding area
- 931 Romtelecom directory information
- 953(1) former state-owned taxi company; the privatised company still holds this number
- 954(1) former state-owned freight taxi company; the priwatised company still holds this number
- 955 police; allegedly no longer toll-free since the implementation of 112
- 956 gendarmerie; formerly a taxi company number in Bucharest
- 957 telegrams
- 958(1) current time announcement (from 10 to 10 seconds)
- 959(0) Border police (probably on counties along the country border or holding international airports)
- 961 state-owned ambulance and medical service; allegedly no longer toll-free since the implementation of 112
- 971 international calls via operator
- 981 fire brigade; allegedly no longer toll-free since the implementation of 112
- 991 domestic calls via operator (for reverse charge calls)
Some short numbers are used for network services, for rotary telephones which cannot dial * and #.
Romania joined the European initiative for a continent-wide emergency number, 112. With the implementation of this service, the former emergency numbers are no longer toll-free, unless they are redirected to 112.
Besides the 112 service, and the reserved 11x numbers, a number may not begin with 1. There are some special codes which start with 1:
- 10xx carrier selection, followed by number
- 16xx carrier selection, with intermediate tone
- 19x(...) nationwide short numbers (proposed but not imoplemented)
When calling from abroad the leading zero is dropped and replaced with the international access code and the country code, like +40-xxx-xxx-xxx. As usual, only regular landline and mobile phones are accessible from outside Romania.
Because Romania's international code is 40, some full numbers are sometimes wrongly advertised as +4 (or 004) followed by the national number, with the leading 0 included. The numbers are still valid, but sometimes even the 0 is dropped, so a call to a number written in this manner will fail. Those who do so mistakenly consider the international code as 4, and not 40. This mistake does not appear in media, but is sometimes observed on written phone numbers on vehicles, especially lorries or coaches.
When calling from Romania abroad, the international access code is 00. Also supported is + for the mobile devices.
A special code is used for calls to the Republic of Moldova. This code is 099, and the charges are lower than by calling using the +373 country code.
