Romania Telephone Area Codes

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Country Code: 40

During the Communist years, there was no direct international access. Numbers had 5 digits except for Bucharest, where numbers were 6 digits long. Dialing outside the town implied using the area code, even when the caller and the callee had the same area code. Area code started with 9 and were 2 digits long for Bucharest (90-xxx-xxx) and 3 digits long (9pp-xx-xxx) for the rest of the country. Many smaller town or rural area calling implied using manual commutation circuits operated by humans. Short numbers for special services, like cab companies, were three digits long, starting with 0 (like 081 for the Ambulance).

After 1989, the then-monopolistic state-owned phone company started a process of upgrading its facilities. In 1993 it started increasing the size of a number to 7 digits in Bucharest and 6 digits in the rest of the country and by changing the prefixing scheme (1 for Bucharest and 20 to 62 for each of the counties). Outside county dialing required a national access code 0 (01-xxx-xxxx to Bucharest and 0pp-xxx-xxx for the rest of the country). In-county calling could be done without prefixes at all (xxx-xxxx to Bucharest and xxx-xxx for the rest of the country). Calling from outside meant +40-1-xxx-xxxx for Bucharest and +40-pp-xxx-xxx for the rest of the country. An international access code for Romanians calling abroad, 00, was adopted. County codes were selected on a geographical order, starting with northern Moldavia (Suceava County had 30), then going southwards to eastern Wallachia, than westwards to Banat, than northern Transylvania and it ends in the southern Transylvania, until the biggest prefix , 69 (used for Sibiu County). The short numbers for special services started with 9 and were three digits long (allowing 911 for emergency calls, like in the United States). Each town or county has it own special services, callable with the same number throughout the country.

In 1996, the first private phone companies, Connex and Dialog, were allotted from the remaining prefixes, which were county-like, 2 digits, prefixes. In the beginning, Connex got the prefix 92 and Dialog got 94. No other change happened, except that calling from a mobile to another mobile or landline implied the use of the national code, the area code (be it one of the regular ones or one of the new '9p'-series one) and the regular phone number, like a regular inter-county call, even if the caller and the callee had the same area code. Calling a Connex mobile from any phone in the country was 0-92-xxx-xxx. Afterwards, Connex also got 91 and 93 area codes, Dialog got 95 and 96, the newly-founded Zapp Mobile got 98 (shared with Cosmorom). Short numbers became were now allowed in both the older form and in 4 digits long forms, both with a leading 9.

At the same time, no-charge numbers were allocated to special area codes or to the Bucharest area code, looking like 0-800-xx-xxx and 0-1-800-xxxx (the leading 0, in fact the national area code, was mandatory for any caller). Under a special agreement, even before this reform, foreign operators could be reached at various numbers, usually in the area code 800 (AT&T used 0-8000-8000). The extra-charge numbers were allotted in the area code 89, being called like 0-89-xxx-xxx (mandatory national access code). Usually mobile phone users and abroad callers could not and cannot access no-charge or extra-charge numbers. Extra-charge SMS were sent to three digits numbers, each company having its own system.

Due to what was seen as more affordable, landline usage started to drop as mobile phones market was growing fast. Mobile phone companies were running out of numbers, as both the main mobile companies claimed million 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, starting with the leading national access code 0 (which is dropped when calling from outside Romania and replaced with +40):

the landline Romtelecom numbers gained a 2 in front of the area code (a Bucharest number became 021-xxx-xxxx and the other regions got numbers like 02pp-xxx-xxxx)
the new landline companies were granted new area codes starting with 3, e.g. an Astral Telecom landline number will be 03pp-xxx-xxx, with the same 2-digit county code as Romtelecom (or the same 1 for Bucharest)
the mobile companies got an extra digit in the area code by replacing the leading 9 with a company specific prefix like 72 for Connex (now Connex-Vodafone), 74 for Dialog (now Orange Romania) etc.; a Connex-Vodaphone number will become 072p-xxx-xxx
no-charge number area codes is 800 (like 0-800-xxx-xxx)
extra-charge numbers are starting with 021-89, like a subset of the numbers owned by Romtelecom in Bucharest.

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 xxx-xxxx in Bucharest and xxx-xxx for the rest of the country). Short numbers for special services and for extra-charge SMS remained unchanged.

Romania joined the European initiative for a continent wide emergency number, 112.

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