Have you ever wondered why India has the country code +91? Let’s discuss
this in detail.
So, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) recommendation defines
the international public telecommunication numbering plan used in the PSTN.
CCITT (now ITU), the predecessor of the ITU Telecommunication
Standardization Sector, developed the first formal list of telephone
country codes. It was included in the 1964 CCITT (now ITU) Blue Book.
The list was organized by creating nine zones as follows(See the
attached pic):
Zone 1= US, Canada, Bermuda and other Caribbean islands
Zone 2= Africa and other Atlantic islands
Zone 3 & 4 = Europe
Zone 5 = Mexico, South America, Central America
Zone 6 = Oceania and South-East Asia
Zone 7 = Russia, former Soviet Union
Zone 8 = East Asia and other special services
Zone 9 = South, Central, West Asia and Middle East.
-How allocation happened?
The logic was that the most popular and populous countries that were
part of the body overseeing the establishment of standardized
international codes would receive the shortest — and easiest — codes.
The USA got +1 as its network was well-advanced, its population was
well-connected to the phone network, and a lot of people would want to
call into the country.
The only other single-digit access, +7, went to the USSR, on population,
but it was the longish 7, because at the time the USSR didn’t have a
good network, nor much business with the rest of the connected world.
The rest of the world had the numbering system divided between them on a
regional basis, although why Africa got the +2 Series is still questionable!
Similar logic was used loosely down the hierarchy; thus, Australia,
Japan, and India (most-popular or populous) got +61, +81, and +91
respectively, though this doesn’t explain Peru, Holland, and
Switzerland; +51, +31, and +41.
The smallest nations got 3-digit codes.
-Which was the last country to get the Country Code?
On 14th July 2011, ITU announced that the Republic of South Sudan, has
been assigned the international dialing code “211”, following the
country’s formal recognition as a UN Member State.
The global country code numbering system is defined in an ITU standard
known as ITU-T Recommendation E.164.
ITU communicates this information to other Member States and the world’s
telecommunication operators in a publication called the ITU Operational
Bulletin, which will also detail the transitional numbering plan from
the previous to the new country code.
