Telephone Numbers in Brazil - Local Dialing

Local Dialing

As established by ANATEL, the Brazilian federal telecommunications regulatory agency, the format for a local phone number is nnnn-nnnn, where the first digit identifies the service associated with the phone number:

• 2 to 5: fixed phones
• 6 to 9: mobile phones

Until 2008, the initial digit 6 was used for landlines in some parts of São Paulo and neighbouring cities in area code 11, but Anatel demanded that 6 was to be released for mobile use. Fixed-line numbers starting with 6 in that area were gradually changed during 2008 to new prefixes starting with 2. In other areas of Brazil, the initial digit 6 was not in use at that time, so no change was necessary.

Until 2005, some localities still used a seven-digit local number (nnn-nnnn). Until the 1990s, there were also certain regions with three-digit area codes and five- (n-nnnn) or six-digit (nn-nnnn) phone numbers. Even shorter numbers used to exist in previous decades, especially in small towns and before direct distance dialing became universal.

Numbers starting with 400n are reserved for a special case of non-geographic numbers (see below).

Numbers starting with 1700 are used within the service area of the Oi Fixo landline operator for some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to provide dial-up Internet access to certain Oi customers. Such customers have special pricing agreements with Oi and are charged less than the price of regular local calls when calling such dial-up access numbers.

Local directory assistance can be obtained by dialing 102, but the service is charged as a regular local call in most instances except from payphones. However, all local landline telephone companies offer on-line directory inquiries on their Web sites. Mobile lines are not available for inquiry, for privacy and security reasons.