Telephone Numbers in Spain - History

History

Spain changed to a closed telephone numbering plan in 1998. Previously, the trunk prefix was '9x', but this was incorporated into the subscriber's number, so that a nine-digit number was used for all calls, e.g.:

xx xx xx (within the same province, until 1998) 9x xx xxxx (within Spain) +34 9x xx xxxx (outside Spain)

Mobiles similarly changed: they are now prefixed with the digit '6' or '7':

909 xxx xxx (within Spain before 1998) +34 09 xxx xxx (outside Spain before 1998) +34 6xx xxx xxx (since 1998) +34 7yx xxx xxx (since 2009-10; note y cannot be 0 (zero) because this is allocated as a personal number, see below)

New numbering ranges have also since been introduced:

10xx Carrier selection codes 5xx xxx xxx Personal Numbering 8xx xxx xxx Geographic expansion 800 xxx xxx Freephone 900 xxx xxx Freephone 80x xxx xxx Shared cost 90x xxx xxx Shared cost

Spain's international access code also changed from 07 to 00, but this did not affect dialing arrangements for calls to Gibraltar, in which the provincial code 9567 was used instead of the international code 350, e.g.:

9567 xxxxx (Gibraltar from Spain) (before 2007) +350 xxxxx (Gibraltar from all other countries, including Spain since 2007) +34 9567 xxxxx (Gibraltar via Spain (before 2007))

The old arrangement was discontinued on 10 February 2007 when Spain adopted the international 00350 prefix for all calls to Gibraltar. See Gibraltar telecom dispute.