India has telephone code +91. Why can? This code is not assigned randomly, but is determined based on international standards managed by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The establishment of this code occurred in the 1960s, when the ITU introduced a country code system through the E.164 numbering plan. The system Digital Agency is designed to give each country a unique identity, taking into account factors such as geographic location, population, and telecommunications infrastructure at the time.
CCITT, the predecessor of the ITU, originally developed an initial list of country codes by dividing the world into 9 distinct zones. Every country in the world has a unique international telephone code, which serves as identification Chat Bot AI when making cross-border calls.
What is a Country Telephone Code?
Country telephone codes or International Calling Codes (call prefixes, country codes, dial out codes) allow you to make international calls. Typically, the international dialing code must be entered before the country code. The Volunteer Forever page explains that telephone codes are unique numbers that identify a country throughout the world. For example, the country code for the United States is +1. So if someone wants to contact you in the United States from another country, they can just type +1 and then your phone number.
Telephone codes also help people to identify where a telephone call is coming from or where the call is being sent. The division of telephone codes is regulated by an international institution called the International Telephone Union (ITU). The telephone code of a country is often called the International Direct Calling Code (IDD code) or International Subscriber Dialing (ISD code).
Country telephone codes are usually used by adding the country code after the “+” sign, and before the telephone number we want to call. For example, Indonesia with country code +62, the user adds it to the telephone number as +628123456789.
Why Does India Get Phone Code +91?
Whenever a mobile number is called across India, +91 automatically becomes the start of the number. The +91 code is not just a number, but there is history and logic behind determining the global telephone code. Quoted from the NDTV page, in the initial list of country codes, parts of South, Central, West and Middle East Asia fell in zone 9. Therefore, India gets +91 as its country code. The ITU considers factors such as population, economic interests, and other communications-related factors when assigning country codes.
Popular and populous countries that are part of the body that oversees the establishment of international codes are assigned the shortest codes. Only the US and the Soviet Union were allocated single digit codes, namely +1 and +7. Meanwhile, the smallest countries get a 3-digit code. Coming back to countries under the 9th zone, they have codes starting from 9. Apart from India, Pakistan’s country code is +92, +93 for Afghanistan and so on.
On the Africallshop page, it is explained that India, a former British colony, originally used the country code 0091 when the international numbering system was established in the mid-20th century. This three-digit code was later simplified to the current 91 format. Additionally, the country’s telephone code 91 has become an integral part of India’s cultural and economic identity. This code is a symbol of the country’s global connectivity and its integration into telecommunications networks around the world.