# International dialling **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 14, 2003, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-dialling/175239 "2003-05-14T17:41:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ryan\_Liam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ryan_liam/32/3965_2.png) [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-dialling/175239/1 "2003-05-14T17:41:18Z")
I need to know how to phone someone on my Cellphone to contact someone in Canada, How do I contact someones cellphone in Canada, or house number, cause it is really bugging me how I can’t, can I send texts overseas? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-dialling/175239/2 "2003-05-14T17:51:03Z")
[Here’s a list](http://kropla.com/dialcode.htm) of international dialling codes and instructions. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-dialling/175239/3 "2003-05-14T17:54:52Z")
For UK to Canada, you would dial 00 1 AAA EEE NNNN where AAA is area code, EEE is exchange and NNNN is the phone number. ---
**Author:** ![Exgineer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Exgineer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exgineer)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-dialling/175239/4 "2003-05-15T01:41:07Z")
I don’t know if I should be bumping this or not, **Ryan** , but I’m curious. What exactly is going wrong when you try to direct dial a cell in Canada? If you look at the site to which **Q.E.D.** linked, you will note that Canada and the US have identical codes. We’re all in the North American Numbering Plan Area, along with Mexico, the Carribean (including Cuba), Latin America, and odd spots out in the Pacific, like Guam, the Marshall Islands, and most recently, American Samoa. You may encounter problems in calling some of the less developed countries and/or regions but Canada is really good for phone connections. Country code-home code-NPA-NXX-XXXX. It shouldn’t be any different for wireless than it is for wireline. ---
**Author:** ![Ryan\_Liam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ryan_liam/32/3965_2.png) [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-dialling/175239/5 "2003-05-15T10:46:18Z")
theres nothing wrong, it’sjust that i’m a dumbass and get confused quickly, thanks for helping. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-dialling/175239/6 "2003-05-15T10:54:09Z")
Oh, and BTW, from my experience, you cannot send SMSes to Northern American cell phones. All of Europe seems fine. I’ve SMSed the Philippines without a problem, but it doesn’t work to the US. Does anyone know the reason for this? ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-dialling/175239/7 "2003-05-15T15:34:58Z")
I assume is it because us stupid North Americans refused to go along the with rest of the human race in adopting GSM as the standard protocol for cell phones. Thankfully, GSM services are finally beginning to show up here, but they are still not very popular (although _I_ have a GSM phone). ---
**Author:** ![popeye\_partridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f0a364/32.png) [@popeye\_partridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/popeye_partridge)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-dialling/175239/8 "2003-05-15T15:44:25Z")
You may also want to check out [this site](http://www.just-dial.com/) It will save you a fortune if you are calling from a mobile and I´m pretty sure you can call a mobile in Canada for the same price as a national UK call (You can certainly call a US mobile.) Also pretty useful if you have minutes on your mobile phone contract that can be used for national calls. ---
**Author:** ![pingalondon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/67e7ee/32.png) [@pingalondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pingalondon)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-dialling/175239/9 "2003-05-15T16:13:57Z")
Sadly you will find (like I did) that if you try any of those international call service numbers from a UK mobile you will get a message saying that it is a calling service and you will be charged at normal rates (so it’s more than a national call and not included in any free minutes/deals you may have). Still probably cheaper than the mobile company’s international rates even with the call charge but it’s worth checking first. ---
**Author:** ![popeye\_partridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f0a364/32.png) [@popeye\_partridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/popeye_partridge)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-dialling/175239/10 "2003-05-15T16:23:25Z")
> [@](#): > > Sadly you will find (like I did) that if you try any of those international call service numbers from a UK mobile you will get a message saying that it is a calling service and you will be charged at normal rates (so it’s more than a national call and not included in any free minutes/deals you may have). The good news is that this company lets you use a mobile. I´ve used mine and checked with Orange and they said it was fine. It can be used with free minutes too as they explain [here](http://www.just-dial.com/pages/mobile_user.asp) For the record, you can call Australia too. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-dialling/175239/11 "2003-05-15T19:59:43Z")
You might also want to check if your service provider offers voice-over-IP for international calls. Vodafone in Hungary do, by dialling an extra “0” in front of the “00” or “+” for international calls. Rates are significantly cheaper…much cheaper than the equivalent call on a land line. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-dialling/175239/12 "2003-05-15T20:44:35Z")
**Exgineer** , Latin America and Cuba are _not_ in the North American Numbering Plan, which was implemented mostly after the US embargo of Cuba. Cuba has country code 53; Latin America has a variety of country codes that start with 5. [WTNG](http://www.wtng.info/), the most comprehensive country-code site I know of. **pulykamell** , the reason most people couldn’t SMS most Canada/US mobiles is that: - North America uses five different cellphone standards (four digital), and until recently there was _no_ inter-standard SMSing in Canada or the USA: GSM phones couldn’t send SMSes to CDMA phones, CDMA phones couldn’t send SMSes to IS-136 TDMA phones, etc. - only the GSM phones could send/receive SMSes with the rest of the world, and even _that_ was dependent on the number of roaming agreements individual cellphone companies had. - Canadian/US mobiles do not have a separate set of phone numbers. Callers can’t tell from the phone number whether it’s a mobile at all, much less whether it’s a GSM mobile that happens to have a roaming agreement with _their_ phones. The result of this is that, if you tried SMSing someone in Canada or the USA, it probably would not work. Details… Canada licensed four cellphone companies nationwide; initially only one of these (Fido, the one I subscribed to in '97 the week after it opened service in Toronto) chose GSM. As Fido’s roaming agreements spread, so did its capability of sending and receiving SMS overseas. I’ve been able to SMS Germany, say, for years. The other three Canadian companies chose CDMA and IS-136 TDMA, and had no SMSing at all initially. The US had a similar choice of technical standards, with the added complication that there were no national licenses: companies had to compete for licenses in hundreds of local areas. Licenses for the big cities were snapped up by large companies, but in the rural areas, often a company with a name like Big Bob’s Internet, Telephones and Live Bait would win a license to cover a county or two. Even if they chose GSM, these smaller companies often had little interest in roaming or SMS until recently. Lately in the US, there has been a wave of consolidation and mergers. If I remember right, Onmipoint merged with Aerial and a bunch of smaller companies, was bought by VoiceStream, and ended up as part of T-Mobile, thus forging one nationwide GSM network. In both Canada and the US, the companies using IS-136 TDMA are switching to GSM and establishing roaming agreements. This establishes additional nationwide GSM networks, and opens up another pool of users who can SMS. There are three GSM services in some US cities now. The remaining competitors to GSM can now trade SMS across the interstandard SMS gateways. I don’t know whether a GSM user outside North America could send SMS to a North American non-GSM user. It’d be a good experiment.