Dialing overseas is a standard hurdle for making travel arrangements, but it can often be a little intimidating, especially if you are already far from home and dealing with an unfamiliar telephone system.
Understand how all phone numbers are structured. Every country has a country code, including the United States. Also, most countries have a system of city/regional codes that correspond to the American area code. Understanding how the country code--regional and city code--phone number structure works with overseas dialing will keep any confusion to a minimum. The following is an example of a phone number in New York City:
1-212-555-5555
The same number would look like this in New Dehli, India:
91-11-555-5555
And like this for Bern, Switzerland:
41-31-555-5555
Note how the country code-city code-phone number pattern remains the same, even though the country and city codes change.
Dial overseas from the United States by including one extra step that lets the phone company know you are direct dialing an international number. Add the prefix of 011 to the number. This prefix is tacked on to the beginning of all international dialing excepting Canada. Dialing Canada from the United States is done the same as any other long-distance phone call from one point to another in the U.S. A sample New Delhi number would be dialed as 011-91-11-555-5555.
Dial internationally from a foreign country by following the same procedure, but with a different dialing prefix. Typically this is 00, but there are roughly 20 countries that use a prefix other than 00 or 011. Note again that the international dialing prefix is not the same as a country code. Once again, this dialing prefix is added to tell the telephone company you are direct dialing an international number. To dial the sample New York number either from India or Switzerland, you would still dial 00-1-212-555-5555. But from Japan, it would be 001-1-212-555-555.
