af@sei.ucl.ac.be (Alain FONTAINE (Postmaster - NAD)) (10/06/89)
Belgium is a small but heavily populated country : about 10e7 inhabitants for about 30000 square kilometers. The country is divided in 40 zones only. Each zone number starts with a zero, which may be considered as an access code (international is double zero). Zone numbers include either two or three digits, including the leading zero. The following numbers are currently in use : 010->016, 019, 02, 03, 041, 050->059, 060->069, 071, 080->087, 091. The two zones with two digits are big zones, and numbers inside them have seven digits (spelled xxx.xx.xx) ; the other zones are smaller, and numbers there only have 6 digits (spelled xx.xx.xx). There is thus room for n * 10e8 different numbers (where n is < 1, maybe in the 0.7->0.9 range). Zones 041, 071 and 091 are centered on big towns, and could potentially become big ones some day. I suppose this is the reason why the other numbers starting with 04, 07 and 09 have not been used. A pseudo-zone, 017, is used to access the cellular phone system, which by the way is unified between Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg. Special services, including various specialized operators, DA, etc have numbers starting with a '1', and are always dialed locally. There are the '100' and '101' national emergency numbers (resp. fire/ambulance and police). All others have 4 digits. For most services, the second digit is '2' or '3', depending on the language you wish to use (French or Dutch). 'Green numbers' (aka 800 for you North Americans) start with either 11, 15 or 17, and have six digits. They are always dialed locally, and are valid all over the country. Those starting with '11' are completely free for the caller, while for the others a single unit is counted for each call. Those number may give access to a foreign subscriber (for example 11.00.10 is ATT in the US - no other US carrier on the list). Rotary dials are standard 1 to 0. If letters have been used, that's very long ago : the telephone that used to sit in my parent's house, installed in the early 50's, did not have letters... DTMF is now commonplace, and is (of course) free. In some regions, the RTT did even replace all instruments when a new DTMF CO was installed. This did not happen everywhere, however. Customers who wanted a DTMF telephone could still ask for the replacement and pay a flat fee (this was before one could *buy* and install).
dik@boring.cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter) (10/09/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0435m01@vector.dallas.tx.us> af@sei.ucl.ac.be (Alain FONTAINE (Postmaster - NAD)) writes: > Zone numbers include either two or three digits, including the leading > zero. The following numbers are currently in use : 010->016, 019, 02, > 03, 041, 050->059, 060->069, 071, 080->087, 091. The two zones with two > digits are big zones, and numbers inside them have seven digits (spelled > xxx.xx.xx) ; the other zones are smaller, and numbers there only have 6 > digits (spelled xx.xx.xx). There is thus room for n * 10e8 different > numbers (where n is < 1, maybe in the 0.7->0.9 range). Zones 041, 071 > and 091 are centered on big towns, and could potentially become big > ones some day. I suppose this is the reason why the other numbers > starting with 04, 07 and 09 have not been used. This is an historical artifact. Some (ten?) years ago all telephone numbers in Belgium were changed. Before that time a telephone number consisted of a two digit area code (including leading zero) and a 6 digit local number, or a three digit area code plus a 5 digit local number. So a telephone number was always 8 digits including area code. This changed overnight throughout Belgium to a telephone number of 9 digits including area code. In most places the local number got an additional digit. The exceptions were the cities with area codes (at that time) of 04, 07 and 09; there the area code was changed and the local number unchanged. > Special services, including various specialized operators, DA, etc have > numbers starting with a '1', and are always dialed locally. There are > the '100' and '101' national emergency numbers (resp. fire/ambulance and > police). All others have 4 digits. For most services, the second digit > is '2' or '3', depending on the language you wish to use (French or > Dutch). When I was in Belgium this summer I checked it, but as far as I know all special numbers are 3 digits starting with either 1 or 9. I remember something like 985 information in French and 995 information in Dutch. But I believe this is different for the different areas. I.e. some areas do not have information in French, while others do not have it in Dutch while a few in the German speaking part have also German numbers. > Rotary dials are standard 1 to 0. If letters have been used, that's very > long ago : the telephone that used to sit in my parent's house, > installed in the early 50's, did not have letters... Like most places in Europe letters were not used very much. I remember a Belgian telephone that had the French layout for letters (that was some 30 years ago), but these letters were never used. The only reason was probably that the telephone was French made. (The French layout is similar to USA/UK layout, except for the position of letter O, which was, together with Q and Z, positioned with digit 0.) dik t. winter, cwi, amsterdam, nederland INTERNET : dik@cwi.nl BITNET/EARN: dik@mcvax
af@sei.ucl.ac.be (Alain FONTAINE (Postmaster - NAD)) (10/16/89)
On 9 Oct 89 16:03:46 GMT you said: >This is an historical artifact. Some (ten?) years ago all telephone >numbers in Belgium were changed. Before that time a telephone number >consisted of a two digit area code (including leading zero) and a 6 >digit local number, or a three digit area code plus a 5 digit local >number. So a telephone number was always 8 digits including area >code. This changed overnight throughout Belgium to a telephone number >of 9 digits including area code. In most places the local number got >an additional digit. The exceptions were the cities with area codes >(at that time) of 04, 07 and 09; there the area code was changed and >the local number unchanged. The historical note is correct (it was done nicely, if I remember correctly). And since then, no new area number has been attributed. And I still believe that we could see a 04, 07 or 09 zone again some day... >When I was in Belgium this summer I checked it, but as far as I know >all special numbers are 3 digits starting with either 1 or 9. I >remember something like 985 information in French and 995 information >in Dutch. But I believe this is different for the different areas. >I.e. some areas do not have information in French, while others do not >have it in Dutch while a few in the German speaking part have also >German numbers. Three digit numbers for special services were replaced on October 30, 1987 by the new numbers I described, all over the country. It may be that the 995 (French) and 975 (Dutch) for information did remain as aliases for those poor stangers who come in Belgium once in a while, and insist on relying on their old notes instead of getting up to date information from, say, a telephone directory. Is that not nice of us??? There is no technical reason to explain the fact that service is not available in any language all over the country : pure politics: _(. >Like most places in Europe letters were not used very much. I >remember a Belgian telephone that had the French layout for letters >(that was some 30 years ago), but these letters were never used. The >only reason was probably that the telephone was French made. (The >French layout is similar to USA/UK layout, except for the position of >letter O, which was, together with Q and Z, positioned with digit 0.) The letters have been used much more in France. When, in the early sixties, we were listening to some French radio stations, we always heard telephone numbers (in Paris) starting with three letters (exchange name) and then, uh, four digits. /AF [Moderator's Note: My favorite Paris exchange was 'OPEra'. PT]