Telephone numbers in Singapore

The Singapore telephone numbering plan, also known as the National Numbering Plan, is regulated by the Numbering Management Department of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), taking over the role from the Telecommunications Authority of Singapore upon its formation in December 1999.

Due to the small physical size of Singapore , there are no area or trunk codes, with the Public Switched Telephone Network, Radio Network and IP Telephony all belonging to one numbering area, and thus comes in the same 8-digit numbering format. Numbers are categorised based on the first digit, thus providing ten possible categories, of which six are currently in use and the remaining four reserved for future usage.

Country Code: 65
International Call Prefix: 00xCalling by default is 001 as landlines are by SingTel,008 for Starhub and 002 for M1

History

Until 1985, subscribers' telephone numbers in Singapore were six digits, but in that year, these changed to seven digits. In 1995, the digit '9' was added to mobile phone services, making numbers eight digits, and in 2002, the digit '6' was added to existing fixed line telephone numbers.

Numbering Plan

Number ranges

3xxx xxxx - Voice Over IP services 6xxx xxxx - Fixed Line services 8xxx xxxx - Mobile phone services 9xxx xxxx - Mobile phone services Includes Paging Services like SUNPAGE 1800 xxx xxxx - Toll-Free line services 1900 xxx xxxx - Premium Service Fee line services

hort codes

0XX - International access code 1711 - Speaking clock 999 - Police 995 - Singapore Civil Defence Force 1777 - Non-Emergency Ambulance 16xx - Customer Services 13xx - Voicemails 18xx - ICC

Calls to and from Malaysia

Calls to and from neighbouring Malaysia do not require international direct dialling (IDD) codes, a legacy of when Singapore was part of Malaysia until 1965. To call a number in Singapore from Malaysia, a subscriber would dial the area code 02, instead of the Singapore IDD code +65.

Similarly, until 1995, calls to Malaysia from Singapore were direct, with only the area code and number being required, hence 03 for Kuala Lumpur instead of +60 3, but in that year the Subscriber Trunk Dialling prefix 020 was adopted, owing to the divergence of the two countries' numbering plans.

Numbering have been changed since the liberalization of the telecommunications industry, with new carriers requiring different dialling arrangements system for calls to Malaysia, which require the use of the +60 country code, for example, to call Malaysia using Mobile One, a subscriber would dial 02160, while making the same call using Starhub, the subscriber would dial 01860.

Calls to Indonesian Border Towns

Calls to Batam, Samarinda, Pekanbaru and Tanjung Pinang in Indonesia require only the code 011, followed by the area code (minus '0') and the subscriber's number, hence to call a number in Batam from Singapore, a subscriber would dial 011 778 xxx xxx, instead of the international code +62 778. Calls to the rest of Indonesia, including those to mobile phones, require international dialling, as do calls made using other carriers in Singapore, such as StarHub and M1.

International Direct Dialling

The default international access code from Singapore is 001 - there are other codes in the 00x range, while VoIP services, like [http://www.zone1511.com.sg/ Zone 1511] , use prefixes in the 15xx range. For example, to call a number in London using Zone 1511, a subscriber would dial 1511 44 20 xxxx xxxx.

There are other internation access codes in the 00x range will selects various provide. Access code in the 0xx range (e.g. 018 - Starhub VoIP services or 019 - Singtel's VoIP services) will indicate a Tier 1 VoIP provider. Access Code like 1xxx (e.g. 1511) is indicative of a Tier 2 VoIP provider.

External links

* [http://www.ida.gov.sg/Policies%20and%20Regulation/20060421164253.aspx Numbering information]
* [http://www.ida.gov.sg/doc/Policies%20and%20Regulation/Policies_and_Regulation_Level3/nnp/NNPAug06.pdf National Numbering Plan]
* [http://www.expatsingapore.com/startup/telephone.shtml Telephone services in Singapore]

* [http://www.singapura.eu Singaporean in Europe and all about local Singapore (authorised by IDA) ]