Telephone Numbers in France

Telephone Numbers In France

The French telephone numbering plan is not only used for metropolitan France but also for the French overseas departments and some overseas collectivities. On October 25 1985, France changed to a system of two areas: outside Paris the old area code was incorporated into the subscriber's eight-digit number; for Paris, the code '1' was retained, and a digit '4' was added to the front of seven digit numbers. For numbers in the Île-de-France surrounding Paris, the old codes '3' and '6' joined the old seven digit numbers to become eight digit numbers and were assigned to the Paris area code '1'. To call the rest of France from Paris, however, the trunk prefix '16' had to be dialed before the eight-digit number, and to call Paris from the rest of France, the prefix '16' had to be dialed, followed by the area code for Paris '1' and the eight digit number.

In 1996, this changed to a ten-digit closed numbering scheme, where the first two digits denoted the area:

• 01 Île-de-France
• 02 Northwest France
• 03 Northeast France
• 04 Southeast France
• 05 Southwest France
• 06 and 07 Mobile phone services
• 08 Freephone (numéro vert) and shared-cost services.
• 09 Non-geographic number (used by Voice over IP services, formerly 087 numbers)

The 09 prefix was introduced in September 2006 and older numbers such as 08 7X XX XX XX are replaced by 09 5X XX XX XX (telephone service offered by Internet Provider "Free").

All geographic numbers are dialed in the ten-digit format, even for local calls. The international access code also changed from 19 to the International Telecommunication Union's recommended 00, bringing France into line with many other countries. Following liberalisation in 1998, subscribers could access different carriers by replacing the '0' (omitted from numbers when called from outside France) with another digit. For example, Cegetel required subscribers to dial '7', e.g.: Paris 71 xx xx xx xx, instead of 01 xx xx xx xx. Similarly, the international access code using Cegetel would be '70' instead of '00'.

When calling France from abroad, the leading zero should be omitted: to call a number in Southwest France, one would dial +33 5 xx xx xx xx.