Telephone numbers in the Republic of Ireland

Telephone numbers in Ireland

Location of Ireland (dark green)
Location
Country	Ireland
Continent	Europe
Regulator	ComReg
Type	Open
NSN length	9
Format	(0xx) xxx xxxx
Access codes
Country code	+353
International access	00
Long-distance	0
List of Ireland dialing codes

Numbers on the Irish Telephone Numbering Plan are regulated and assigned to operators by Comreg.

Overview and history

Telephone numbers in Ireland are similar in format to those in many European open numbering plans, for example the UK or Germany with only the subscriber's number being required for local dialling. However, it is also possible to dial local calls with the full area code without any difference in charge. The trunk prefix is '0' followed by an area code, the first digit of which indicates the geographical area.

• 01 — Dublin city, County Dublin and parts of counties Kildare, Wicklow and Meath.
• 02 — Cork city, most of County Cork and a small part of County Waterford : (021) Cork City, (022) Mallow, (023) Bandon, (024) Youghal, (025) Fermoy, (026) Macroom, (027) Bantry, (028) Skibbereen, (029) Kanturk.
• 03 — Not used
• 04 — East Coast (excluding Dublin), and parts of Midlands e.g.(041) Drogheda, (042) Dundalk, (043) Longford, (044) Mullingar, (045) Kildare, (046) Navan, (047) Monaghan, (049) Cavan, (0402) Arklow, (0404) Wicklow.
• 05 — Southeast & East Midlands e.g. : (051) Waterford city, (052) Cahir, (053) Rosslare, (056) Kilkenny City, (057) Tullamore, Birr and Portlaoise, (058) Dungarvan, (059) Carlow,(0504) Thurles, (0505) Roscrea,
• 06 — Southwest & Midwest including Counties Kerry and Limerick : (061) Limerick city and Shannon, (062) Cashel, (063) Charleville, (064) Killarney & Kenmare, (065) Ennis, (066) Tralee & An Daingean, (067) Nenagh, (068) Listowel, (069) Newcastle West.
• 07 — Northwest including Counties Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal : e.g. : (071) Sligo, Carrick-on-Shannon and Bundoran, (074) Letterkenny, Ballybofey, Glenties.
• 08 — Mobile Telephones, Pagers and some non-geographic numbers see below:
• 09 — West and West Midlands, including Counties Galway, Mayo and areas of Westmeath : e.g. (090) Athlone, Portumna and Ballinasloe, (091) Galway city, (093) Tuam and Headford (Co. Galway), (094) Castlebar, (095) Clifden, (096) Ballina, (097) Belmullet, (098) Westport, Achill and off-shore Islands, (099) Kilronan (Off Shore), Aran Islands

Area codes have varied in length, between one and four digits, and subscribers' numbers between five and seven digits but a migration to a standard format, (0xx) xxx xxxx, is in progress.

This process is only being carried out as needed where existing area codes and local numbering systems have reached full capacity.

Dublin numbers are currently seven digits, but may change to eight digits in the future, although breaking the city into separate area codes would match the rest of the national system.

The 08 numbering range was previously used for calls to Northern Ireland, but following the UK's renumbering of Northern Ireland in 2000, this changed, so to call a number in Belfast from the Republic:

• Before 2000: (080) 1232 xxx xxx

• After 2000: (048) 90xx xxxx; or via the UK numbering plan; 00 44 28 90xx xxxx

Calls to Northern Ireland landlines using the 048 prefix are charged at national rates, unlike calls to the rest of the UK. Calls dialled using via the UK numbering plan may be charged at international rates by some operators.

Until the early 1990s, the 03 numbering range was originally used for calls to Great Britain, with the Irish prefix 030 replacing the UK trunk code 0. Calls to British cities using the Director telephone system were made using shorter codes:

• 031 — London (01)
• 032 — Birmingham (021)
• 033 — Edinburgh (031)
• 034 — Glasgow (041)
• 035 — Liverpool (051)
• 036 — Manchester (061)

This was discontinued in 1992, when the international access code changed from 16 to 00, and calls to Great Britain required the country code 44 and the area code in full.

For a short period in the early 1990s 0300 was used for premium rate services (see below)

The prefixes 151x, 1530, 1540, 1550 (Initially 0300), 1559, 1560, 1570 and 1580 are for premium rate services which are more expensive than other telephone calls. These numbers provide a range of services from weather forecasting to adult dating. ComReg, a government body, monitors the premium rate services industry.

Freephone services use the prefix 1800, while shared cost (Lo-Call) numbers use the prefix 1850. 1890 (local rate) numbers are issued to non-geographic services, with 0818 being charged at national rate, or slightly higher.

One disadvantage of this arrangement is that Irish shared cost numbers are inaccessible from outside the Republic (unlike, for example, UK local and national rate numbers, which can be accessed by dialling 0044845 or 0044870), although numbers with the 0818 prefix can be dialled internationally, for example, as 00353818 from the UK. Consequently, many organisations that operate on both sides of the border advertise separate non-geographic numbers, for example, a 1800, 1850 or 0818 number for callers from the Republic, and an 0800, 0845 or 0870 number for callers from Northern Ireland.

Dial-up Internet providers are entitled, but not required, to use numbers in the 189x range. 1891 numbers cost slightly below local call rate, and are often provided for subscription dialup packages. 1892 numbers are used for full local rate dialup, and 1893 for variable-rate dialup.

A new area was introduced in 2005, using the 076 access code. This is allocated to VOIP providers, and is treated as either a national or local call by individual telecoms operators.

The 13xxx code is used for accessing third party phone service providers and some internet services. These codes can be used to route calls to local, mobile, national or long distance numbers. However, most customers use carrier preselect, where the local telephone switch automatically routes calls over their desired service provider(s)

Geographically assigned

Main article: List of Irish dialling codes

• 01 — Dublin area — also extends to certain parts of Wicklow, Meath and Kildare.
• 021–029 — Most of County Cork; Cork City, Bantry, Bandon, Fermoy etc.
• 0402 — Arklow.
• 0404 — Wicklow.
• 041–047, 049 — North East Midlands and parts of Wicklow.
• 048 — Northern Ireland landline access (may also be dialled as an international call to the UK using 00 44 28).
• 051–059 Midlands and South East.
• 060 Currently unused.
• 061–069 South West and Mid West Area
• 071, 074 — North West Area.
• 090–099 — Midlands and Western Area.

Mobile services

Mobile phones use the prefixes 083, 085, 086, 087 and 089. 088 was previously issued to the Eircell analogue service. This has subsequently been issued to Digiweb. While mobile numbers are portable between operators, all new numbers are issued in an operators own allocation - 083 for 3, 085 for Meteor, 086 for O2, 087 for Vodafone and 089 for Tesco/48. The full number must be dialled even if it has the same prefix as the caller's number this is due to Eircell and Esat Digifone allocating numbers starting with 0 within their prefix range (for example 087 0xxxxxx).

• 082 — Paging services (Eirpage)
• 083 — 3 Ireland
• 085 — Meteor / eircom Mobile (MVNO)
• 086 — O2 Ireland (formerly Esat Digifone)
• 087 — Vodafone Ireland (Eircell until 2002; part of state-owned Telecom Éireann until 1997)/Postphone — A mobile phone service provided by An Post/Justmobile (Now out of business since summer of 2011)
• 088 — Digiweb 4G mobile (prefix formerly used between 1985 and July 2001 by Eircell's analogue mobile phone service, using TACS).
• 089 — Tesco Ireland [(MVNO)/48 on the O2 network].
• 089 9 - Lycamobile MVNO operating on O2.(issued in the absence of a previously held number)

Note: Mobile Number Portability has been in operation since 2003. While a new connection to any network will take the prefix above, there is no guarantee that a number with one of those prefixes has remained on that network. In addition, a given network is not guaranteed to receive all of their prefix block. The numbers in each prefix are allocated in blocks of several thousand to the networks, as they require them, thus ComReg could in theory, allocate 083 numbers to Vodafone.

Direct-to-voicemail

Every Irish mobile number has a corresponding voicemail box number. This is formed by prefixing the last 7-digits of the mobile number with the digit 5

E.g. to call the voicemail box associated with mobile number 085 XXX XXXX you would dial 085 5 XXX XXXX

Unused

Defunct/historical

• 03 — Reserved (Formerly used for Great Britain and premium rate services). Reserved for changes in the numbering scheme.
• 080 — Formerly used for Northern Ireland landlines
• 084 — Formerly used for Belfast landlines
• 16 — Old international prefix (no longer in use)
• 910 — For operator assisted calls to some areas without direct dialling

Reserved

• 07 — all except 0707, 0700, 071, 074 and 076 are reserved without assigned purpose.
  • 0707 — Reserved for personal numbering.
  • 076 — Reserved for non geographical numbering (Voice over IP services).
• 0800 — Reserved (+800 is international freefone).

Special numbers

• 00 — International access.
• 020 91x xxxx — Drama use (although the rest of the 020 area code is free).
• 0700 — Personal Numbering.
• 076 — Voice over IP services.
• 080 — Mailbox for landline users (Formerly NI access code).
• 0818 — Universal Access (similar to personal numbering).

Operator services

• 10 — eircom Operator (not accessible from mobiles, payphones, or from other fixed line networks)
• 112 — Emergency Services (The long established 999 code also works)
• 114 — eircom International Operator (not accessible from mobiles, payphones, or from other fixed line networks)
• 118xx — Directory Enquiries (Multiple commercial providers offer a variety of services in this number range)
• 999 — Emergency Services (The pan European 112 code also works)

Basic Call Management Services

_{These are available on all Irish PSTN lines, regardless of operator. There is a more expansive range of services available, but these are the most commonly used. Different codes apply on cable telephony lines, such as those provided by UPC Ireland and VoIP providers}

• *43# — Activate Call Waiting
• *#43# — Check Status of Call Waiting
• #43# — Deactivate Call Waiting
• *21* (phone number)# — Forward all calls to (phone number)
• *#21# — Check Status of Call Forwarding
• #21# — Deactivate Call Forwarding

Most exchanges confirm setup with a verbal announcement, however some exchanges (running older software/hardware) may use a ringing tone to indicate successful service setup and a busy tone to indicate an error / invalid code.

• 199xxx... — Network operator specific engineering codes (undefined length) — e.g. To check what number you are calling from on eircom or Smart Telcom landlines dial 199 000. The switch/exchange will automatically announce your phone number.
• GSM Codes — all of Ireland's mobile providers use the standard GSM codes to control special services such as call forwarding, barring, call waiting etc.

Carrier Selection (per call)

• 13xxx — Carrier selection (Third party long distance, international and internet services). These codes override the default carrier.

Special charge services prefixes

• 15xx — Premium Rate
• 1800 — Freephone (Saorghlao)
• 1850 — CallSave ("Glao Sábhála") (per call charge)
• 1890 — Lo Call ("Íosghlao") (local rate access)
• 1891 — Low Cost Internet Access
• 1892 — Local rate Internet Access
• 1893 — Variable Cost Internet Access

Caller ID Services

• 141 — Caller ID default override — Withhold Caller ID on this call.
• 142 — Caller ID default override — Present Caller ID on this call.
• 1471 — Check last missed call. The system will verbally announce details of the last missed call.
• #93# — Delete missed call information from the network's memory.

See also

• List of dialling codes in the Republic of Ireland

References

• ITU allocations list

External links

• Comreg homepage
• Comreg:Geographic Numbering Areas (pdf)