telephoning Itlay from USA
 

Has there been some change in the method of calling phone numbers in Italy from the USA? I have been trying for hours to Fax or phone three hotels in Italy, but I keep getting busy signals. It's hard to believe that their lines are that busy in February, even at 2 a.m. <BR><BR>This is how I have been calling: <BR><BR>011 plus 39 (country code)<BR><BR>plus city code, omitting he initial zero that might be used in Italy<BR><BR>plus the number. <BR><BR>I think the system must have changed. Can someone explain?

topping for Carol..Rex, can you help?

Nope - - no monopoly on this kind of info or news - - and I can't find anything searching "news changes international calling codes italy".<BR><BR>I don't think I need to tell Carol T how to make a telephone call to Italy - - she is clearly not a novice. Probably a bad source for the numbers or a local system outage? Where are you trying to call, Carol - - what numbers, specifically?<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

There IS a new system. We now need to add a zero after the country code (or, looking at it another way, don't delete the initial zero that is used in the city code witihin Italy). One of the numbers I tried had a recording explaining this chnage in procedure. I tried all the numbers again, with the zero added, and all the faxes went through!<BR><BR>(Just when I finally learned the rules well enough that I didn't have to look them up any more they changed!)<BR><BR>I wonder if the same change applies to calling other countries as well.

Good discovery, Carol. I am surprised to be unable to find this in the form of an online announcement. Once upon a time, I (my office) was a business customer of Cable and Wireless - - and we got announcements all the time on every little national telephone system change to countries you never even heard of!<BR>

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Don't feel bad, same thing happened to me and it took some time to get the ultimate answer.... sometimes adding a 0 to the front of the city code. A good source is the AT&T World Traveler-country and city codes website.

If you have any problems dialing overseas, just contact the overseas operator (dial "00"). They can answer any questions you have.