[comp.dcom.telecom] Telephone Number Formats In Australia

david@wolfen.cc.uow.oz (David E. A. Wilson) (07/22/89)

In article <telecom-v09i0242m03@vector.dallas.tx.us>, CAPEK%YKTVMV.BITNET
(Peter G. Capek) writes:
> Separately, I'd like to ask a question about long distance access codes.  In
> many countries, city codes are commonly quoted with a leading 0.  In all
> cases that I know of, this leading 0 is really an access code, and isn't
> intended to be used, for example, when the city code is dialed from outside
> the country.  Is there any case in which this isn't true?  That is, is there
> any country which has an city code which starts with a zero?

In Australia we use the leading zero as an access code.
Large cities get 0 + 1 digit (ie Sydney is 02, Melbourne 03) while country
areas get 0 + 2 or 3 digit unless they are still manual exchanges (ie
Wollongong (including Shellharbour & Kiama) is 042, outback New South Wales
is 068).

The interesting ones are in Tasmania (the island state) which has area codes
002, 003 & 004. Hobart, the capital, is in 002 so if someone makes an
international call starting +61 02 they will get a Hobart number rather
than a Sydney number.

The other peculiarity is that Adelaide is 08 but only has numbers in the
range 2xx xxxx to 3xx xxxx plus 4x xxxx and 79 xxxx. Thus the rest of the
state (South Australia) is 085, the Northern Territory gets 086 (and Darwin,
its capital gets 089) while Broken Hill in NSW gets 080.

This is all nowhere near as structured as your US numbering scheme.

David Wilson			david@wolfen.cc.uow.oz.AU