How Country Codes are Assigned || Country Phone Codes || Phone Dialing Code || ITU
Country codes are a component of the international telephone numbering plan and are necessary only, when dialing a telephone number to another country. Country codes are dialed before the national telephone number.
The international calling code is needed to help the phone company to understand where you would like your call to be routed. Understandably, with so many countries in the world, a way to ensure every call is routed to the right place is essential.
Who is responsible for assigning these?
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is the organisation responsible for assigning these country codes. ITU is one of the 15 specialised agencies of the United Nations.
Apart from assigning country codes, ITU also performs various functions to coordinate telecommunications among the international community. For instance, ITU helps to promote corporation in assigning satellite orbits and are active in the areas of broadband internet and the next generation of wireless technology.
How are the country codes assigned?
Country codes are not determined randomly and ITU has a system on how these numbers are assigned.
ITU breaks down the world into 9 regions, and each region has its own prefix (meaning the first number of the country code).