Area codes in the Caribbean

The development of the telephone area codes in the Caribbean began with the expansion of the North American Numbering Plan in 1958 with the assignment of area code 809 for Bermuda and most of the Caribbean islands.

From 1958 to 1999, most of the British West Indies in the Caribbean Basin, Bermuda, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico shared a single area code. By the mid-1990s, with the proliferation of fax machines, mobile phones, computers, and pagers in the region, the pool of available central office codes was exhausting. Beginning with Bermuda in November 1994, and The Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and Barbados in 1995, several countries in the Caribbean received individual area code assignments from the NANPA, effectively splitting area code 809. By 1999, it was retained only by the Dominican Republic, following the departure of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines from using the area code.[1]

Assignments

The NANP area codes (black) and country codes (red) of the Caribbean islands
TerritoryArea codeYear of Assignment
Anguilla2641996
Antigua and Barbuda2681996
The Bahamas2421995
Barbados2461995
Bermuda4411994
The British Virgin Islands2841996
The Cayman Islands3451996
The Commonwealth of Dominica7671996
The Dominican Republic809, 929, 8491958, 2005, 2009
Grenada4731996
Jamaica876, 658[2]1996, 2018
Montserrat6641996
Puerto Rico787, 9391995, 2000
Saint Kitts and Nevis8691996
Saint Lucia7581996
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines7841997
Sint Maarten7212009
Trinidad and Tobago8681996
The Turks and Caicos Islands6491997
The U.S. Virgin Islands3401997

Sint Maarten was part of the Netherlands Antilles until dissolution in 2010. It is a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Sint Maarten used the country code +599 of the Netherlands Antilles until joining the NANP on September 30, 2011, with area code 721.[3]

Former assignments within 809

The following was the 1958-1995 numbering plan for 809. Starting in the 1980s, Puerto Rico, Bermuda and the Dominican Republic began to use prefixes from unused ranges throughout the 2xx to 9xx range. Historic (1960s-mid-1980s) ranges are shown in parentheses.

The number pool of the area code was divided between the regions by the national number, which was from two to four digits long, leaving five to three digits, respectively, of the total of 10 digits of a complete telephone number for local telephone number assignments. The national number appeared in local telephone directories.

Caribbean nations with a larger numbering resource requirement used seven-digit dialing, and had no need for a national number.

Non-NANP jurisdictions (i.e., the rest of the world) identified a Caribbean calling destination by analyzing the first six digits dialed (1809xx), therefore, faced the difficulty where a seventh digit was required to identify the specific nation. Rates based on destination would have to be the same for all destinations sharing the same six digits, e.g., St. Lucia and St. Vincent would have to be the same rate; Anguilla, British Virgin Islands and Montserrat would need to be the same rate; Antigua, Barbuda, Nevis and St. Kitts also would have to be the same rate. Since Cable and Wireless was the provider in most or all cases, the same corporate entity benefited from the revenue for incoming calls. The assignment of new area codes after 1994 resolved this since only the first four digits would be required to distinguish each country.

territorynumber formnotes
Anguilla809-497-xxxx(National number 4972, then expanded to four digit local numbers as N.N. 497)
Antigua and Barbuda809-46x-xxxx(National number 46)
The Bahamas809-32x-xxxx
through
809-37x-xxxx
Barbados809-42x-xxxx
809-43x-xxxx
(National number 43, then changed to 7D, as 42 or 43)
Bermuda809-xxx-xxxx(National number 29, then changed to 7D, as 23 or 29)
British Virgin Islands809-49x-xxxx(National number 49)
Carriacou809-44x-xxxx
The Cayman Islands809-94x-xxxx(National number 94)
The Commonwealth of Dominica809-44x-xxxx(National number 44 shared with Grenada)
The Dominican Republic809-5xx-xxxx
809-68x-xxxx
Grenada809-44x-xxxx(National number 44 shared with Dominica)
Jamaica809-9xx-xxxx(began with 9, other than 94x)
Montserrat809-491-xxxx(National number 491)
Puerto Rico809-7xx-xxxx
809-8xx-xxxx
809-25x-xxxx
809-26x-xxxx
809-27x-xxxx
809-28x-xxxx
Saint Kitts and Nevis809-465-xxxx(National numbers 465 for St. Kitts, 469 for Nevis)
Saint Lucia809-45x-xxxx(National number 45 shared with St Vincent)
Saint Vincent809-45x-xxxx(National number 45 shared with St. Lucia)
Trinidad and Tobago809-6xx-xxxx(began with 6, other than 68)
Turks and Caicos Islands809-946-xxxx(National number 946)
The U.S. Virgin Islands809-77x-xxxx
Numbering prefixRemaining digit quantityCountry
29fiveBermuda
3sevenThe Bahamas
4sevenBarbados
44fiveThe Commonwealth of Dominica
44fiveGrenada
45fiveSaint Lucia
45fiveSaint Vincent
46fiveAntigua and Barbuda
465fourSaint Kitts
469fourNevis
491fourMontserrat
497fourAnguilla (started as 4972 + three)
49fiveBritish Virgin Islands
5sevenThe Dominican Republic
68sevenThe Dominican Republic
6sevenTrinidad and Tobago
77sevenThe U.S. Virgin Islands
7sevenPuerto Rico
8sevenPuerto Rico
946fourThe Turks and Caicos Islands
94fiveThe Cayman Islands
9sevenJamaica

In chart above, digits in italics were just the initial digit(s) of seven-digit number dialing.

Sint Maarten was part of +599 until long after 809 was totally divided into individual area codes.

Source for above info: Incumbent provider Cable and Wireless Telephone-directory from Barbados of 1994-1995.

Other territories

Not all of the Caribbean islands are members of the North American Numbering Plan. The following countries have country codes assigned by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

territorycode
Aruba+297
Haiti+509
Cuba+53
Guadeloupe +590
Saint Barthélemy
Saint Martin
Martinique+596
Caribbean Netherlands +599
Curaçao

See also

References

  1. NANPA Planning Letter No. PL-NANP-103 (1997-11-21)
  2. http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/Jamaica_gets_additional_area_code_658
  3. "PL-423: Updated Information - Introduction of NPA 721 (Sint Maarten)" (PDF). North American Numbering Plan Administration. 2011-07-23. Retrieved 2011-10-01.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.