callingcards

International dialing codes are split in to 3 parts; IDD Prefix, Country Code and NDD Prefix.

The IDD Prefix is the international dialing code part used to dial out to a foreign country. It tells the telephone network it is making an international call. For a single country the IDD Prefix is the same no matter which foreign Country Code is dialed.

The Country Code follows the IDD Prefix. It identifies the foreign country to connect to.

The NDD Prefix is used when dialing a national number. This is removed when dialing a foreign country. The City Code or Area Code follows the NDD Prefix but the Ndd Prefix and Area Codes are usually displayed together.

The process of making international calls is made more complicated when you move from one country to another. You could quite easily remember New Zealand's Country Code for example but when you move to a different country yourself the international dialing code is going to change.

Some countries have special relationships with each other allowing cheap international calls via a certain number. For example Moldova's Country Code is 373 and Romania's Ndd Prefix is 00 (at the time of writing). A call could therefore be made from Romania to Moldova by dialing 00 plus 373 plus the number. However it is much cheaper to dial 022 due to a special relationship the two countries have arranged.

Another factor is do you know what time it is in the foreign country. You need to make sure you are not going wake anyone up in the middle of the night due to world time zone differences.

TimeDial.net is a website that can help this process. All you need to do is select your destination location from a dropdown box and it displays the world time, international dialing code, area code and currency converter almost anywhere. Your current location is detected from IP address lookup and it remembers your destination selection for future visits. Time Dial is the most comprehensive, accurate and simple to use site of its kind.