Telephone numbers in India
Country Code: 91
International Call Prefix: 00
Fixed (landline) numbers
 | This section's factual accuracy is disputed. |
Fixed line telephones are operated by the government-owned incumbent operator BSNL, although some new fixed-wireless operators are in the picture since 2001.
Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) codes are assigned to each city/town/village, with the larger cities having shorter area codes (STD codes), the smallest being 2 digits. An STD Prefix of 0 is used to dial such a number. For example,
11 - New Delhi, Delhi 22 - Mumbai, Maharastra 20 - Pune , Maharashtra 33 - Kolkata, West Bengal 44 - Chennai, Tamil Nadu 40 - Hyderabad/Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh 80 - Banglore, Karnataka 20 - Pune, Maharastra 79 - Ahmedabad, Gujarat 452 - Madurai, Tamil Nadu 423 - Ooty, Tamil Nadu
In addition, due to the availability of multiple operators offering fixed line services (either over wire or wireless), there is also an operator-code for each telephone number, namely:
2 - BSNL and MTNL 6 - Reliance 4 - Airtel (formerly Touchtel)
Thus, a number formatted as 020-30303030 means a fixed-line Reliance number in Pune, while 011-20000198 is a MTNL fixed line in Delhi and 033-45229320 is a Tata Indicom number in Kolkata.
A full list of area codes in India is available with BSNL
Cell phone numbers
Telecom Regulator TRAI has divided the country into various cellular zones such that within each zone, the call is treated as a local call, while across zones, it becomes a long-distance call. A cellular zone (or cellular circle) is normally the entire state, with a few exceptions like Mumbai (which is a different zone), Goa (the state, which is a part of the Maharashtra zone) or Uttar Pradesh (which is so big it was divided into multiple zones)
From 20th May 2005 onwards calls between Mumbai Metro & Maharashtra Telecom Circle, Chennai Metro & Tamilnadu Telecom Circle, Kolkata Metro & West Bengal Telecom Circle and UP (East) & UP (West) Telecom Circle Service Areas are merged in Inter service area connectivity. With the above arrangement, calls within a State in the above-mentioned four States would be treated as intra-service area call for the purposes of routing as well as Access Deficit Charges (ADC). The dialing procedure for calls within a State for these States would also be simplified i.e. dialing of mobile-to mobile subscribers and fixed-to-mobile subscribers would be without prefixing ‘0’. Ref : DoT Notice
All mobile numbers in India have the prefix 9 (This includes pager services, but the use of pagers is on the decline). Each zone is allowed to have multiple private operators (earlier it was 2 private + BSNL, subsequently it was changed to 3 private + BSNL in GSM 900/1800, now it also includes 2 private + BSNL in CDMA). All cellphone numbers are 10 digits long, (normally) split up as OO-AA-NNNNNN where OO is the operator code, AA is the zone code assigned to the operator, and NNNNNN is the subscriber number.
The numbering plan is as follows:
92-yy-yyyyyy - Tata Indicom mobile phones. The two digit code XX identifies the cellular zone. 93-xx-yyyyyy - Reliance India Mobile. The two digit code XX identifies the cellular zone. 94-xx-yyyyyy - BSNL. The two digit code XX identifies the cellular zone. 98-xx-yyyyyy - All private (non government-owned) GSM operators. The two digit code XX identifies the operator as well as the cellular zone. 97-xx-yyyyyy/99-xx-yyyyyy - Some new licensees have been given 97 and 99 series codes, as the 98 series stands saturated.
For a full list of cellphone numbering plans in India, refer to India Cellphone Numbering
International dialing
The international access code in India is 00. For example, to call 08-790-1000 in Sweden from India, a subscriber would dial:
00 46 8 7901000.
For calls to India from abroad, the appropriate international access code should be dialed, followed by 91 followed by the area code (without the 0) followed by the phone number. For example, to call 011-23456789 in India, from Europe, a subscriber would dial:
00 91 11 23456789
For example, to call a cell phone number (94-23-456789) in India, from Europe, a subscriber would dial:
00 91 94 23 456789