wtho@uunet.UU.NET (Tom Hofmann) (08/05/88)
>From article <505@vector.UUCP>, by cantor%dssdev.DEC@decwrl.dec.com (Dave Cantor): > The blurb enclosed with this month's bill from US Sprint has new > international dialing instructions. Several countries (Anguilla, > Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman > Islands, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, > Mustique, Nevis, Palm Island, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, > Trinidad & Tobago, Turks & Caicos Islands, and Union Island) are all > listed with code "1 + 809". > > The instructions say to dial 1 + Area Code + 7 Digit Number to "Canada > and All 809 Area Code Countries". > > Is 809 a code that US Sprint invented? > > Dave C. I posted an article concerning the 809 area code some weeks ago with no response. So here it is again: As far as I know several Caribbean islands belong to the North-American telephone system (U.S.A., Canada; country code: +1) having the area code 809. Therefore, the international prefix for that region should be +1 809. From West Germany that's the correct code, indeed. However, here in Switzerland the code is +500 809. +1 809 doesn't work from here neither is there success with +500 809 from West Germany. Does that mean that there are regions on this world which haven't a single international access code? (Except the "+" which always differs.) I believed that every internationally accessible telephone number could be dialed as +<country><area><number> where only the "+" differs. Isn't it CCITT's task to make those codes standardized? And since 809 obviously belongs to country code +1, won't +500 be used for another country in the future? Tom Hofmann wtho@cgch.UUCP ...!mcvax!cernvax!cgch!wtho