The Australian telephone numbering plan governs the allocation of telephone numbers in Australia. It has changed many times, the most recent major reorganisation by the Australian Communications and Media Authority taking place between 1994 and 1998.[1]
For landline telephony, Australia is geographically divided into four areas, three of which cover more than one state or territory. All local telephone numbers within the four areas have eight digits, consisting (mainly) of a four-digit exchange code and a four-digit local line number. The national significant number consists of a single-digit area code followed by the local eight-digit number, a total of nine digits. Calling within Australia a landline telephone in an area other than that of the caller, the telephone number is preceded by the Australian trunk prefix 0 and the area code: 0x xxxx xxxx.
The current numbering plan would appear to be sufficient to cope with potential increase in demand for services for quite some time to come.[citation needed] The 06 and 09 area codes are unused. In addition, each other area code has large number ranges unallocated.[citation needed]
In major centres, the first four digits specify the CCA (Call Collection Area, also known as an exchange), and the remaining digits specify a number at that exchange, up to 10,000 of which may be connected. Smaller exchanges in more remote areas may mean that no more than 100 numbers could be connected to such exchanges.
The area codes do not exactly match state/territory boundaries. Notable are the part of New South Wales around Broken Hill (a large part of the state's area but less than 1% of its population), which uses (08) 80xx numbers,[2] and Wodonga, which is in Victoria but is within the New South Wales (02) area code. Similarly New South Wales border towns including Deniliquin and Buronga are within the South East (Victorian) (03) area code, and Tweed Heads within the North East (Queensland) (07) area code. Physical exchanges can be allocated one or more prefixes and modern technology allows sub-sets of these number ranges to be allocated to switching entities physically located at a distance from the exchange in which their controlling terminal is located. (Thus, the concept of what a "telephone exchange" is can become somewhat blurred.)
However, the full international number must always be dialled, since the Australian telephone network has the capability to recognise when the destination required is either international, in a different national area or within the local area and to switch and charge the call accordingly. Thus, it is strongly recommended that telephone numbers should be stored in mobile phones in the form of the full international number, should the owner of the phone be likely to use the phone concerned in an area away from home, either within Australia or internationally.
The xy-digit codes (sometimes xy z) are allocated per network. Since the introduction of number portability, there is no longer a fixed relationship between the mobile phone number and the network it uses.
Each mobile phone company is allocated numbers in blocks, which are listed below. However mobile number portability means an individual number might have been "ported". There are also many MVNOs which use numbers from their wholesaler or might have their own ranges.
0145xxxxxx numbers are used for services utilised on the Optus network in Australia. This is predominantly used for MobileSat and Thuraya mobile satellite services. These numbers were allocated in December 1992: 222,000 with the rest "spare".
These numbers are designed for VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) systems, where they work like a fixed number but not allocated on a geographical level. It is possible that LICS numbers will be absorbed into mobile numbers in the future, as they provide similar features. Indeed, the July 2012 variation of the numbering plan allocated the rest of the 05 range to digital mobile numbering.[7]
000 is the primary emergency telephone number in Australia.[10] Secondary emergency numbers are 106 (for use by the hearing impaired with a TTY terminal) and the international GSM mobile emergency telephone number 112.
Increased awareness of the 112 emergency number[10] in Australia has led to the potential for confusion over which number to call in an emergency. As a secondary emergency number, 112 is not guaranteed to work from all technologies; most notably, it does not work from landlines.[11] In order to encourage use of 000, mobile telephones imported commercially into Australia are required to be programmed to treat 000 in the same fashion as 112 (i.e. dialling with key lock enabled, use of any carrier, preferential routing, etc.).[12] On older or privately imported (e.g. roaming from another country) telephones, 000 may not receive such preferential treatment.
The 13 and 1300 numbers are known as Local Rate Numbers or SmartNumbers.[13] They are also known as priority 13, and priority 1300 numbers. These work across large areas (potentially the whole of Australia) and charge the caller only a low cost, routing the call to the appropriate place in a given area. For example, a company could have the number 139999 and have the telephone company set it up so that calls made in Melbourne would route to their Melbourne number, calls made in Brisbane to their Brisbane number, and calls made anywhere else in Australia route to their Sydney number, all at a local charge cost to the caller. 13 numbers were not available before the introduction of the current 8-digit local numbering plan. Businesses looking for local callers tend to connect to a "1300" number. Note that these numbers are called "Local Rate" and not "Local" numbers, so do not necessarily cost the same as a local call: Indeed, many (landline and mobile) phone plans do not even include them in the "included" credit and/or charge them at a higher rate than "normal" numbers.
Though promoted as "local call rate" calls, calls to 13 and 1300 numbers cost more than a local call fee for those people using VoIP and having all local and national calls free.[citation needed]
Other numbers beginning with 19 are used for premium-rate SMS services. These were originally trialled using the 188 prefix. These can range from a standard SMS cost (usually 25c), up to 55c for competition use, to several dollars for other uses, such as unique bid auctions.
These four-digit numbers are dialled before the destination number to complete and bill a call by a carrier other than the subscriber's service provider. For example, to use AAPT to call a number in Tokyo, Japan, subscribers would dial 1414 0011 81 3 xxxx xxxx, or to use Optus to call a number in Perth they would dial 1456 08 xxxx xxxx. It is not clear if all these prefixes will actually work. Not all carriers have interconnect agreements with each other
Until the early 1960s, the first one or two digits of telephone numbers in metropolitan areas were alphabetic, with each letter representing a distinct number on the telephone dial. Each one-letter or two-letter code signified an exchange within an urban area. Rural and regional areas typically relied on manual exchanges, or only one automatic exchange for the whole town, so rural and regional numbers did not feature these letter prefixes. The use of a letter-number combination also served as a memory aid as it was easier to remember than a string of digits in the days when such things were not as common.
Unlike the three (or fewer) letters associated with each of the numbers on the dials of telephones of the UK Director telephone system, which was used in London and other large British cities, Australia used a system of letters associated with the ten digits available on a telephone dial, where each of these letters were chosen because their "name" (when pronounced, in English) could not be confused with any of the other nine letters of the English/Latin alphabet which were also used.
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Dialing the exit code is something American callers use for every international call, including Australia. The exit code is 011. With all international calling, including calling Australia from the US, the first numbers dialed are 011.
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