Telephone numbers in Belgium

Belgium telephone numbers
Location
Country Belgium
Continent Europe
Type Open
Access codes
Country calling code +32
International call prefix 00
Trunk prefix 0

A telephone number in Belgium is a sequence of nine or ten digits dialed on a telephone to make a call on the Belgian telephone network. Belgium is under a closed telephone dialing plan, meaning that the full national number must be dialed for all calls, but it retains the trunk code, '0', for all national dialling.

Exception: Some "special services" use 3 or 4 digits with no area or trunk codes: e.g.; 112 and 100 (fire brigade and ambulance); 101 (police); 1307 (info in French) or 1207 (info in Dutch), etc.

"112" is an emergency number for contacting the fire brigade, ambulance and police in all 27 countries of the European Union. Operators will help you in the native language, in English, or the language of any neighbouring country. When calling this number in Belgium for contacting the police you will be forwarded to "101" and lose (precious) response time.

The Telephone numbering plan is open, meaning that numbers have varying lengths (9 digits for landline phones of the formerly monopolistic company Belgacom, and 10 digits for other numbers incl. GSM cellphones).

Overview and structure

Area codes in Belgium are, excluding the leading '0', one or two digits long. Numbers are of variable length; landlines have a seven-digit subscriber number and a one-digit area code, while smaller cities have a six-digit subscriber number and a two-digit area code. All Belgian telephone numbers dialed within Belgium must use the leading '0' trunk code. Area codes are separated from the subscriber number by a slash and a space, and subscriber number digits are in the format xxx xx xx or xx xx xx (sometimes xxx xxx), depending on the length of the area code. See the table below for examples:

Belgium
  0x xxx xx xx - dialing a big city, such as Brussels, Antwerp, Liège and Ghent.
 0xx  xx xx xx - dialing a small city, such as Kortrijk, Mons, Ostend or Verviers
04xx  xx xx xx - dialing a mobile number from a land line or another mobile phone.

From outside Belgium, a caller would dial their international call prefix (typically 00 in Europe and 011 in North America), followed by 32 (the country code for Belgium), then the area code minus the trunk code '0', and finally the local number.

Dialing from New York to Brussels
011-32-2-555-12-12 - Omitting the leading "0".
Dialing from New York to Charleroi
011-32-71-123-456 - The subscriber number shortens with the addition of a number to the area code.
Dialing from New York to a mobile number
011-32-4xx-12-34-56 - The dialer omits the leading "0".

Mobile/GSM area codes always begin with 04xx and the subscriber number is six digits long. Numbers are usually provided by Mobistar, Base, or Proximus, and more recently by Telenet as well. Each provider has a unique number assigned as the second digit in the area code: Proximus numbers begin with 047x or 0460, Base numbers with 048x, Mobistar numbers with 049x and Telenet numbers with 0468. With the introduction of number portability, area codes may no longer correspond with their providers.

Area codes

Mobile numbers

On some mobile phones, caller ID may fail unless the leading 0 is replaced with a + and the country code, i.e. a caller's number 0474-12-34-56 might need to be manually replaced with +32-474-12-34-56 in your phone. More ranges have become available between 0440 and 0468 For the latest list refer to reference [1]

Non-geographic numbers

Number format:

 070  xxx xxx 
 077  xxxxx xxxxxx 
 078  xxx xxx
 0800  xx xxx
 090x  xx xxx

References

  1. ↑ http://www.bipt.be/en/operators/telecommunication/Numbering/Database/database-with-reserved-and-allocated-numbers
  2. ↑ http://www.bipt.be/en/operators/telecommunication/Numbering/regulation/decision-of-the-bipt-council-of-6-september-2011-on-the-determination-of-the-numbering-plan-for-m2m-communication
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