Knowledge Base - Making International Calls

Before you try to make an international call, note that international calling is blocked by default and can be enabled selectively by contacting Customer Service.

International calling can be enabled:

By Country Code or for all countries
On one extension or on all extensions

Keep in mind some international locations are very expensive to call. Mobile phones are often more expensive than land lines.

ILD rates vary by country, carrier, and so on. To check the rate on a number please use this tool. If you will be making a high volume of calls to any particular location, please contact us for information on rate plans.

Canada, the United States, and most Caribbean countries are part of NANP (North America Numbering Plan). To make an international call to outside of North America you need to first dial ‘011’. This is called the Exit Code.

You also need to know the City Code (Area Code) of the city you are dialing in to.
Then finally you need the actual Subscriber Number (Telephone Number) of the person or place you want to call. Keep in mind that each country has its own local convention for writing telephone numbers. This will impact how you need to dial the number to that country.

Making a call from Canada to the United States:

Exit Code (the exit code between NANP countries is ‘1’)	Country Code (there is no need to use a country code when calling between NANP	City Code (Area Code)	Subscriber Number (Telephone Number)
1		XXX	XXX - XXXX

Because Canada and the United States are both part of NANP you only need to use the NANP Country Code (which is ‘1’) in place of both the Exit Code and Country Code; giving you format of:
1 + (XXX) + XXX – XXXX

International examples:

Mexico City has an eight-digit number which is written as (55) XXXX XXXX or (55) XX XX XX XX.

Germany has no fixed format for writing phone numbers with; however, there are a few standard formats that are used, an example of this is the DIN 5008 standard. The way to write an international number using this standard is: +49 AAAA BBBBBB (with AAAA as the Area Code and BBBBBB as the Subscriber Number).

Let’s see how it works when calling from Canada to a country outside of the NANP group:

Exit Code (from Canada)	Country Code (to United Kingdom)	City Code (Area Code)	Subscriber Number (Telephone Number)
011	44	From XX to XXXXX (London’s City Code is ‘20’)	XXXX XXXXX XXX – XXXX XXXX – XXXX (London uses an eight-digit subscriber number)

So for calling to London from Canada you would use this format:

011 + 44 + (20) + XXXX – XXXX

Getting help.

If you are having trouble dialing an international number, contact the business or person you are trying to call via email or their Customer Support and ask them to confirm the number you should dial from North America. If you continue to have trouble, please contact us and we will help you resolve the issue.

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