Only a Phone Call Away

We have a phone now! Actually, we have had our our home phone line hooked up for about a week, but we haven’t heard from you… :^). I know, I know. International dialing can be a bit daunting. The numbers don’t look anything like in the US and there are country codes and plus signs — what does it all mean? Well, don’t worry, I’ll walk you through it. And as an added bonus, we have unlimited calling to the US, so you can always give us a ring and then we’ll ring you right back to save on your phone bill.

For our UK mates that might be interested, the plan is called Talk 3 International and is offered through TalkTalk from the Car Phone Warehouse. It includes unlimited calling to the US, UK landlines, and about 25 other countries bundled with with unlimited 8meg internet for only £21 per month. It is an unbeatable deal.

Now, back to calling from the US. The first intimidating thing (and I speak from experience) is that the phone numbers don’t look anything like they do in the US. A phone number here might look something like

+44 (0)20 1234 5678

The country code is often included in European phone numbers because it is common to call between countries. This saves you from having to look up country codes all the time. The country code can easily be identified by the preceding + symbol. So, we tell that the country code in this number is 44.

Next is the 0 in parenthesis. When calling the UK from the US, ignore this leading 0. This is required only when making a call from within the UK. It is like dialing 1 in the US when making a long distance call, but it is always written as a part of the number here whereas in the US it is assumed.
Finally we get to the actual phone number. In the US, it is standard that area codes are three digits and all phone numbers are formatted in the same XXX-XXX-XXXX format. In the UK, area codes may be different lengths and the formatting of the phone number varies by region. For example, the area code for London is 20 and the phone numbers are eight digits. In Bath the area code is 1225 and the phone numbers are six digits. Once you get past that, you realize that all of the phone numbers are really 10 digits just like they are in the US.

The last thing you need to know is the international dialing prefix. In the US this is 011. (In the UK this is 00.) Now, let’s put it all together. So, in order to call this number from the US…

+44 (0)20 1234 5678

…you would dial it as…

011 44 20 1234 5678

Pretty easy, eh? Now we’ll be looking for your call — just remember the time difference!