Telephone numbers in Mexico explained

Country:Mexico
Country Link:Mexico
Continent:North America
Map Size:220px
Plan Type:Closed
Nsn Length:10
Number Format:+52 XX XXXX XXXX
+52 XXX XXX XXXX
Plan Date:24 November 2023
Country Calling Code:+52
International Prefix:00

Telephone numbers in Mexico are regulated by the Federal Telecommunications Institute, an independent government agency of Mexico. The agency published the Fundamental Technical Plan for Numbering (Plan Técnico Fundamental de Numeración) on May 11, 2013.[1] The plan establishes a uniform ten-digit telephone number format. It took effect on August 3, 2019.[2]

Telephone number format

All telephone numbers in Mexico have ten digits, of which the first identifies one of the eight principal geographic regions of the country.

Prefix Region
2 East
3 West
4 North
5 Center (Mexico City metropolitan area)
6 Northwest
7 South
8 Northeast
9 Southeast

The national number is formed by prefixing the previously existing local number format with an area code.[2] All ten digits must be dialed for all calls.

Dialing prefixes

Since August 3, 2019, only the following dialing prefixes are available for use within Mexico:

Dialing into Mexico

Destinations in Mexico are dialed from foreign location by dialing the foreign country's International access code (011 in the US, 00 in many other countries), the country code 52, and the ten-digit national telephone number of the destination.

History

Until August 3, 2019, telephone numbers in Mexico consisted of ten digits with either two-digit area codes (for Mexico City, Monterrey, and Guadalajara and their respective metropolitan areas) or three-digit area codes for the rest of the country. New area codes were assigned in the overlay format to address number exhaustion: in 2017, Toluca and Puebla and in 2018, León, Mexico City, and Tijuana.

In the early development of International Direct Distance Dialing (IDDD), Mexico elected to join World Zone 5, instead of joining the North American Numbering Plan (NANP).[3] Since the 1960s, the Bell System had already established technical infrastructure to include Mexico in the NANP routing system, and continued to maintain special dialing arrangement using NANP area codes 903 (northwest Mexico) and 905 (Mexico City) from the US into Mexico,[4] because of high community interest into the 1980s. Use of the area codes was formally discontinued on February 1, 1991, requiring callers to use international dialing.[5] [6]

Area codes

Major cities and metropolitan areas have the following codes:

Area codeCity or metropolitan area
55 / 56Mexico City
81Monterrey, Nuevo León
33Guadalajara, Jalisco
656 / 657Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua
614Chihuahua, Chihuahua
618Durango, Durango
999 / 990Mérida, Yucatán
221 / 222Puebla, Puebla
442 / 446Querétaro, Querétaro
449Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes
663 / 664Tijuana, Baja California
612La Paz, Baja California Sur
624Los Cabos, Baja California Sur
844Saltillo, Coahuila
686Mexicali, Baja California
667Culiacán, Sinaloa
722 / 729Toluca, Mexico
998Cancún, Quintana Roo
871Torreón, Coahuila
744Acapulco, Guerrero
444 / 440San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí
833Tampico, Tamaulipas
477 / 479León, Guanajuato
961Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas
662Hermosillo, Sonora
633Agua Prieta, Sonora
645Cananea, Sonora
644Cd. Obregón, Sonora
642Navojoa, Sonora
631Nogales, Sonora
229Veracruz, Veracruz
443Morelia, Michoacán
921Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz
771Pachuca, Hidalgo
981Campeche, Campeche
899Reynosa, Tamaulipas
868Matamoros, Tamaulipas

Dialing prefixes prior to 2019

PrefixUseFormatDigits after prefix
00International direct dialing00 + country code + area code + phone number-
01Domestic direct dialing01 + area code + phone number10
02Domestic operator dialing02 + area code + phone number10
09International operator dialing09 + country code + area code + phone number-
044Local cell phone from a land line044 + area code + phone number10
-Cell phone from a cell phonearea code + phone number10
045Domestic cell phone from a land line045 + area code + phone number10
-Domestic cell phone from a cell phonearea code + phone number10

Other service numbers

Services
020Operator-assisted domestic collect call (Telmex)
030Local time (Telmex)
031Wake up service
040Information / directory
050Phone company hotline
051Number portability PIN (can be used to determine your own line's phone number)
070City hotline (not available in some cities)
071CFE hotline (electric company)
072[Reporte de Servicios de Ciudad] hotline (Water Troubles, Bad Road, Etc... not available in some cities)
090Operator-assisted international collect call
911Emergency telephone number (since 2016)

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: AGREEMENT whereby the Plenary of the Federal Institute of Telecommunications modifies the Fundamental Technical Plans for Numbering and Signaling, as well as what refers to the Number Portability Rules. SEGOB. DIaro Official de la Federación. 2018-05-11. 2022-12-14.
  2. Web site: El Pleno del IFT aprobó los índices y parámetros de calidad del servicio móvil y aprobó los nuevos Planes de Numeración y Señalización (Comunicado 149/2017) . Instituto Federal de Telecomunicationes. IFT. 2022-12-14.
  3. AT&T, Notes on Distance Dialing (1975) p.10-4
  4. https://books.google.com/books?id=GcfwAAAAIAAJ&q=%22actually%20routed%22 CED.
  5. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-01-31-me-23-story.html Phone System Changes Kill 2 of Mexico’s Area Codes
  6. https://books.google.com/books?id=hj1RAQAAIAAJ&q=Mexico+%22706%22+area+code Telecommunications Reports