International phone number max and min?

Question

What is the max and min digits for an international telephone number? (country code + area code + phone number)

They're theoretically very long if you include extensions... — deceze, Jul 28 '10 at 06:50
Minimum is 7, according to https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14894899/what-is-the-minimum-length-of-a-valid-international-phone-number — Rob W, Sep 01 '14 at 16:45
@RobW according to the specified question minimum is 5 (for fixed line phones @ Solomon Islands). — naXa stands with Ukraine, Nov 02 '17 at 11:52

score 45 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

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, where the format of telephone numbers is standardized by ITU-T in the recommendation E.164, which specifies that the entire number should be 15 digits or shorter,

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_number

Also, check this other question on SO: What's the longest possible worldwide phone number I should consider in SQL varchar(length) for phone

edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Community

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answered Jul 28 '10 at 06:59

Ahmed Aman

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Big question is does this include the country code? – May 05 '14 at 23:47
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15 digits, country code included (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.164) – Mariano Jun 17 '20 at 14:48

jmz · Answer 2 · 2016-03-15T15:50:07.193

Telephone numbers are standardised by ITU-T in their recommendation E.164. In the recommendation they say telephone numbers should not exceed 15 digits.

So it's up to the telephone operators and local standards.

Most operators don't allow you to send SMS messages to numbers which are more than 16 digits long. So you'll be safe with 16 digit limit.

Edit A nice summary of misconceptions about phonenumbers can be read at https://github.com/googlei18n/libphonenumber/blob/master/FALSEHOODS.md

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 28 '10 at 06:55

The answer to that question can (and does) change in a fashion which is entirely too fluid to be able to provide you with a definitive answer. Carriers or countries can change their numbering plans (adding area codes or adding digits or the like) at any time.

A website which I often use as a reference for International Phone Numbers is http://www.numberingplans.com/

I believe they also sell their databases, if you are wanting to validate individual numbers within your own system..

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 21 '16 at 09:28

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15 digits is maximum, refer this link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.164

answered Apr 21 '16 at 09:28

megan

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E.164 is a recommended standard, not an enforced standard, so numbers greater than 15 digits can, and at some point almost certainly will, exist. – Luke Stevenson Jul 18 '17 at 01:47
@LukeStevenson can you please provide the example ? – Sergio Ivanuzzo Nov 12 '19 at 22:24

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 20 '21 at 15:52

Although the standard is talking about 15 digits maximum, a call number extension using Direct Inward Dial (DID) and Private Branch Exchange (PBX) technologies is oftenly used in order to call a specific person or department inside an organisation, which can make a phone number longer than 15 digits (note "-1234" suffix at the end):

0049 (30) 123456789-1234

In our systems we use the limit of 20 digits.

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 23 '20 at 11:11

Actually, the question asks for an "international" phone number but mentions an area code which some nations don't have. In E.164 the national part was found be no more than 12 digits at the time of writing. Then they added a country code and atleast a "+" for the prefix.

Longer subscriber numbers may be possible however and we know that they do get assigned in some regions of the world. The technical limitation for that can be found in the 3GPP standards (like GSM) and ISDN standards (like DSS1) which have 10 bcd-encoded bytes for the subscriber number - plus a byte for the prefix which can be up to 4 digits to be dialled. That adds up to a limit of 24 digits for a viable subscriber number.

International phone number max and min?

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