How To Enter International Numbers in Contacts; How to Dial Them

If international calling is something you're going to be doing, ALWAYS use the +(country code) format.

I use it for all my phone numbers, foreign and domestic. That way the number works no matter where I am. Dialing rules change depending on which country you're in. For example, I have a German iPhone. If I tried to dial a German number while I was, for example, in France, the UK or America, it wouldn't work. I would have to dial as if I were dialing internationally. Using the +(country code) format ensures that you can save a number once and use it anywhere inthe world.

The format is simple. "+" simply replaces any crap dialing rules your country may have. For the states, you have to dial 011 (country code) to get an international line, for Germany it's "00 (country code)." The "+" replaces 011 and 00.

As long as you enter everything in +(country code) format, you won't have to worry about how you dial. You will, of course, have to figure out if there are any extra numbers. For example, in Germany, you always start "normal" dialing with a 0. For international calls, that first 0 is dropped. That means that a number that starts with 0212 would become +49 212 xxx xxxx.

Stateside numbers are easy: they're always +1 (area code) number.