Telephone numbers in the Dominican Republic use area code 809 with 829 and 849 as overlay codes. Telecommunications in the Dominican Republic use the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) country code, 1, followed by the area code in the same form as an internal area code in other NANP countries, such as the US and Canada.
The area codes 809, 829 and 849 are telephone area codes solely for the Dominican Republic. Following Saint Vincent and the Grenadines leaving 809 in 1999, no other countries use the legacy 809 area code.
When in the Dominican Republic, the 3-digit area code followed by the 7-digit phone number must be dialed. When calling the Dominican Republic from the United States or Canada, this must be prefixed by the digit "1".From other countries the international prefix used in the originating country must be dialled before the "1".
809 scam
Some telephone fraud scams once revolved around the 809 area code; it was being used since it has a higher than normal rate. 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 set up as a premium rate with an exorbitant per-minute charge. The victim is then put on hold indefinitely, and billed for each minute they are on hold. This is actually perfectly legal, because the telephone regulations in the Dominican Republic don't require premium rate numbers to be declared.
809 scam email
Around 1996, an email from Scambusters.org appeared, warning about the 809 and other Caribbean area codes scams, and this (legitimate) warning began to make the rounds of forwarded emails. As usual with such forwards, people have modified it from its original form to make it appear more urgent. Untruths and exaggerations in the resulting hoax email warning now include the following:
- The hoax email warns against ever dialing this area code, when in truth, most phone numbers in the 809 area code are not scams, and it's perfectly all right to call someone you know who lives in this area code. The original recommendation was not to return calls from people you don't know who claim that you have won something, or have some trouble with a credit card that needs to be cleared up "immediately", or who claim that a family member of yours has been taken ill, or who offer you a job, etc.
- The hoax email asks you to forward it to every friend and family member you know, thus making a chain letter. Scambusters, the originator of the warning email, does not ask people to forward their emails.
- The hoax email warns of outrageous sums that might be charged, such as US$2,400 per minute, or sums totalling up to $10,000.00 (the original warning was for charges that were "reportedly as high as $25.00" per minute, and included a surmise that you might be taken for $100.00).
- The hoax email claims that the 809 area code is new, though it has been in operation for many years.
- The hoax email places the 809 area code in the "British Virgin Islands (the Bahamas)" which is an error copied from the original email.
New codes
Area code 829 for the Dominican Republic operates as an overlay for the local (809 and 849) telephone area codes.
The dual area code system was added to local telephony in July 2005 and later mandatory in November 2005. The new telephony rules were almost wholly due to the explosive growth of the cellular population in the Dominican Republic, starting in the mid-1990s with telephone prepaid-cards being the main propulsion, and growing incredibly through the early 2000s with the launch of two new cell-phone carriers making the major-cellular provider count four nationwide. The 809 area-code, which used to be the default legacy area-code for many other Caribbean areas, including Puerto Rico. In the mid-1990s, the 809 was split and eventually just assigned to the Dominican Republic. Also, the reason for this newly placed dual area code system is that it is estimated the standard 7-digit area-code could hold around 9.5 million number combinations, and currently there are around 1.6 million land-based lines and 4.2 million cellular phones. Thus it was decided to attach another area-code to this country, because of the extensive growth and threat of number depletion.
In early 2009 a decision was made to add a second overlay, 849 . The triple area code system went into effect on on 1 July 2009.
References
- ^ http://www.lincmad.com/telesleaze.html
- ^ "NPA 849 to Overlay NPA 809/829 (Dominican Republic)" . http://www.nanpa.com/pdf/PL_387R1.pdf . Retrieved 2009-04-15 .
See also
- List of NANP area codes
- North American Numbering Plan
- Area codes in the Caribbean
External links
- North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA)
- Telecommunications in The Caribbean
- Federal Communications Commission regarding the 809 scam
- AT&
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