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Re: That pesky plus signs and mobile phones [telecom]

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"John Mayson"  wrote in message 
news:BANLkTimU5r1_rxw4fPP06fHr-i2k+SR0Lg@mail.gmail.com...
>
> What's more, I cannot call internationally by using the (+).
> The phone doesn't recognize that.  I have to use 011.  My
> attempt to call +60-4-yyy-zzzz resulted in a call to Vancouver.

My understanding is that "+" means "dial the international access code 
appropriate to your location, then this number."  Thus, in the USA (if not 
all of the NANPA), "+" translates to "011."  If you're calling an 
international number from a phone in China, "+" must be replaced with their 
international dialing prefix (which appears to be "00").

Note that numbers starting with the "+" have the country code as the very 
next digit(s), which is what follows the international prefix when dialing. 
The NANPA is unique in that the country code, matches our internal long 
distance prefix ("1"), further confusing people who are not used to 
international dialing.

The intelligence of using the "+" notation is that it assumes the caller can 
figure out the appropriate international prefix and dial it before dialing 
the rest of the number.  Before cellphones, you could not find a "+" on the 
keypad (or dial, for that matter), so if you thought about it you might 
actually try and figure out what it meant.

It appears you've run across one smart cellphone that lets you enter the "+" 
character and it translates it as an international number.  However, another 
model appears to not have that feature, so translated "+604" as area code 
604; so you got Vancouver instead of Malaysia.

Bottom line, it is best to know the international access code and dial it 
directly and not rely on the phone translating "+" for you.

-Gary

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Thread

That pesky plus signs and mobile phones [telecom] John Mayson <john@mayson.us> - 2011-04-22 12:39 -0500
  Re: That pesky plus signs and mobile phones [telecom] "Gary" <bogus-email@hotmail.com> - 2011-04-22 20:30 -0400
    Re: That pesky plus signs and mobile phones [telecom] "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com> - 2011-04-23 03:26 +0000
      Re: That pesky plus signs and mobile phones [telecom] John Mayson <john@mayson.us> - 2011-04-23 14:02 -0500
      Re: That pesky plus signs and mobile phones [telecom] "Gary" <bogus-email@hotmail.com> - 2011-04-24 09:29 -0400
        Re: That pesky plus signs and mobile phones [telecom] "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com> - 2011-04-24 23:48 +0000
        Re: That pesky plus signs and mobile phones [telecom] "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com> - 2011-04-24 19:20 +0000
          Re: That pesky plus signs and mobile phones [telecom] "Richard Powderhill" <richard_powderhill@btopenworld.com> - 2011-04-26 09:36 +0100
        Re: That pesky plus signs and mobile phones [telecom] tlvp <tPlOvUpBErLeLsEs@hotmail.com> - 2011-04-24 15:50 -0400
        Re: That pesky plus signs and mobile phones [telecom] David Clayton <dcstarbox-usenet@yahoo.com.au> - 2011-04-25 09:22 +1000
      Re: That pesky plus signs and mobile phones [telecom] "Greg Monti" <gmonti@mindspring.com> - 2011-04-26 22:53 -0400
    Re: That pesky plus signs and mobile phones [telecom] David Clayton <dcstarbox-usenet@yahoo.com.au> - 2011-04-23 16:11 +1000
    Re: That pesky plus signs and mobile phones [telecom] "Harold Hallikainen" <harold@hallikainen.com> - 2011-04-23 11:18 -0700
  Re: That pesky plus signs and mobile phones [telecom] Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com> - 2011-04-23 08:23 -0700
    Re: That pesky plus signs and mobile phones [telecom] John Mayson <john@mayson.us> - 2011-04-23 23:45 -0500
  Re: That pesky plus signs and mobile phones [telecom] "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com> - 2011-04-23 00:39 +0000
    Re: That pesky plus signs and mobile phones [telecom] "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com> - 2011-04-24 19:38 +0000
      Re: That pesky plus signs and mobile phones [telecom] "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com> - 2011-04-25 14:49 +0000
  Re: That pesky plus signs and mobile phones [telecom] kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) - 2011-04-24 15:48 -0400

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