Phone number changes in Ecuador and Chile

If you have friends or family in Ecuador or Chile, or if you travel there for business or pleasure, you might want to make yourself aware of the changes that have been going on to the phone systems in those countries.  The following will help explain the changes that have been made.

As of midnight September 30, 2012, Ecuador´s Office of Telecommunications, SUPERTEL, added an extra “9” to all cell phone numbers.  The new digit will be inserted after the initial 0.  Therefore, if you are calling to someone on a mobile phone while you are inside of Ecuador, you will now dial 09X XXX XXXX as opposed to the old way of 0X XXX XXXX.  When dialing from outside of the country, you will add the extra “9” after the country code.  So instead of dialing 593 X XXX XXXX you would dial 593 9X XXX XXXX.

Chile telecommunications office, SUBTEL, announced that there will be a change in the way calls are made to landlines throughout the country.  An extra “2” will be inserted to all landline phone numbers.  The change is gradual and will finish taking place by June, 2013.  In Santiago (Region Metropolitana) and Arica, this change has already occurred respectively on November 24, 2012 and October 20, 2012.  In the other regions of Chile this change will take place between May and June of 2013.

Now when calling from landline to landline you will add the extra “2” at the beginning of the number.  Therefore you will now dial 2 + XXX XXXX as opposed to just the number.  When calling from a cell phone to a landline you will add the extra “2” after the initial “0”.  Therefore you would dial 022 + XXX XXXX as opposed to 02 + XXX XXXX.

For more information, please visit SUBTEL´s information page.