Telephone numbers in the Dominican Republic

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"Area code 809" redirects here. 809 was once assigned to Bermuda and many islands in the Caribbean which have since been allocated their own codes; see Area codes in the Caribbean for more details.

Area codes 809, 829, and 849 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the Dominican Republic. As all NANP members, the Dominican Republic uses country code 1, and has similar dialing procedures for dialing the ten-digit national telephone numbers, which consist of the area code, a three-digit central office code, and a four-digit line number. The three area codes of the country are organized as an overlay plan for a single numbering plan area (NPA), comprising the entire country. Thus, ten-digit dialing is mandatory.

Area code 809[]

Area code 809 was assigned in 1958 to Bermuda and the Caribbean islands. However, Cuba, Haiti, the Netherlands Antilles, and the French West Indies did not participate in the NANP. Beginning with Bermuda in November 1994, and The Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and Barbados in 1995, several countries in the Caribbean received individual area code assignments from the NANPA, effectively splitting area code 809. By 1999, it was retained only by the Dominican Republic,[1] following the departure of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines from using the area code.[2]

Area codes 829 and 849[]

Area code 829 was added for all of the Dominican Republic to form an all-services distributed overlay on January 31, 2005. Earliest central office assignments were possible on October 1, 2005.[3] The relief was needed because of the growth of mobile phone communication in the Dominican Republic, starting in the mid-1990s with prepaid telephone cards, and growing quickly through the early 2000s with the launch of two cellphone carriers, Orange (now Altice) and Centennial (now Viva), in addition to the preexisting CODETEL (now Claro Dominicana) and TRICOM (now Altice Dominicana).

The expansion in telecommunication services continued and further relief for the numbering resources was needed in 2009, when an additional area code was assigned for the numbering plan area, area code 849.[4] Earliest central office code assignments were possibly on July 1, 2009, but did not occur until 2010.[5]

One-ring scam 809 calls[]

Telephone fraud scams once involved area code 809; it was being used since calling international numbers from the United States is charged at a higher rate than domestic calls.[6] The charge is set jointly by the originating and terminating countries; the foreign country portion of the charge could be very high, and there was no regulation by anyone. There may have been a resurgence with wireless telephones.[6] The victim receives a message on their answering machine to call a number with an 809 area code. Since there were many new area codes being introduced in the US, the victim thinks nothing of it and dials the 809 number. The number dialed is however an international number with a share of the revenue going from the foreign telephone company to the operator of the number (the party that got the call to be placed). The victim could be put on hold indefinitely, and billed for each minute they are on hold. This is a form of fraud, though technically legal.[7]

More recently, a similar scam has emerged due to the prevalence of wireless phones which display callback numbers automatically, known as the "one ring scam". The perpetrator of the scam calls the victim via a robodialer or similar means, sometimes during night time, then hangs up after the call is answered with the hope that the receiver will be curious enough to call the number back. When the victim does this, an automatic $19.95 international call fee is charged to their account, as well as $9.00/min thereafter. Similar scams have been linked to Grenada (area code 473), Antigua (area code 268), Jamaica (area code 876) and the British Virgin Islands (area code 284).[8]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Area code 809 (2/Jan)". Retrieved 2014-01-02.
  2. ^ NANPA Planning Letter No. PL-NANP-103 (1997-11-21)
  3. ^ NANPA Planning Letter No. PL-338 (2004-08-02)
  4. ^ NANPA Planning Letter No. PL-387R1 (2009-04-14)
  5. ^ "New area code 849 begins February 15 in Dominican Republic". Retrieved 2014-04-22.
  6. ^ a b http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/809.html
  7. ^ http://www.lincmad.com/telesleaze.html
  8. ^ BBB Warns of One Ring Cell Phone Scam Archived February 19, 2014, at the Wayback Machine

External links[]

Dominican Republic area codes: 809/829/849
North: 649
West: Country code +509 in Haiti Area code 809/829/849 East: 787/939
South: Caribbean Sea
Puerto Rico area codes: 787/939
Turks and Caicos Islands area codes: 649
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