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Storing Phone Number in Mobile Phone

Have you ever noticed or aware of the ‘+’ sign that is prefixed in the phone number that we dial or store in the address book in our mobile phone? What is the significance of putting a ‘+’ sign in front?

All the telephone numbers we dial follow certain format known as E.164 addressing format – a combination of digits that comprise the country code, area code and telephone number. This format is defined by ITU (International Telecommunication Union), which is an international organization established to standardize and regulate international radio spectrum and telecommunications standards. All of the countries around the world follow this format to dial a telephone number.

Different countries (or operators) have different international direct dialing (IDD) access code; typically it is a ‘0’ or ‘00’ or ‘00x’ (e.g. 001). This IDD access code must be dialed out before you dial the fully specified phone number in E.164 format. Instead of remembering different IDD access code in different countries, there is a standard way to dial this on our mobile phone by using the ‘+’ sign. Example: Dialing +60123344556 is as good as dialing 0060123344556 (when you are oversea). Dialing +60123344556 while you are not overseas will also work as it is as good as you dial 0123344556.

This is definitely handier than storing the phone number in local dial format, such as 03032233445 or 0123344556 (I notice most people do that). Instead, store the phone number in the standard international format such as +6032233445 or +60123344556 in your address book, you will find that you can dial the same number anywhere from your address book in your mobile phone without the hassle of keying number again with some special IDD access code in front.


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  1. BrianA | Apr 12, 2008 | Reply

    I found the examples a little confusing as normally the first 0 (NDD) is only used when dialling within the country. It thus appears that you have used +60 for the country code, so when you add this to 0112233445 you remove the first 0 then add +60. In UK for example with 0112233445 the stored number would be +44112233445. The + represents the IDD wherever you are around the world.

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