Telephone numbers in Norway have the country code "+47" and up to the first 2 digits of the phone number will indicate its geographic area. Emergency services are 3 digits long and start with the number "1". Mobile numbers vary in length, either 8 digits or 12 digits.
Historical numbering plan pre-1992
Before 1992, telephone numbers would consist of a 2 or 3-digit area code, and a 5 or 6-digit subscriber number. Example: (067) 85 000 and (04) 66 00 00.
In that year, a
closed telephone numbering plan
A telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunication to assign telephone numbers to subscriber telephones or other telephony endpoints. Telephone numbers are the addresses of participants in a telephone network, reac ...
was adopted, with eight-digit telephone numbers incorporating the area code and full number dialling for local and national calls. Service numbers were to be three digits long, Directory numbers four digits and some companies were allocated five-digit numbers, ex. 07575.
GSM telephony was introduced in 1993, and those numbers always start with the digits '4' or '9'.
Emergency numbers
Historically, the local operator would take emergency calls and forward them to the police, fire or local doctor. In 1964, the emergency number 000 was introduced. In 1985, a modernized emergency service was started at Haukeland hospital in Bergen for Hordaland. In 1986, the emergency numbers changed to 001 for fire brigade, 002 for police and 003 for ambulance. These numbers changed to 110, 112 and 113 in 1994, when the international access code changed from 095 to 00.
Landline numbers (as of 2020)
Geographic numbers were abolished in January 2020. Landlines will be shut down in 2023 by
Telenor
Telenor ASA ( or ) is a Norwegian majority state-owned multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations worldwide, ...
. Caller IDs will no longer say the region, but rather say "Norway" or leave blank instead. These numbers are today used by
VOIP
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet t ...
services.
* 2x xx xx xx - 3x xx xx xx
*50 xx xx xx - 57 xx xx xx
*6x xx xx xx - 7x xx xx xx
Non-geographic numbers
*8xx xx xxx: Non-geographical numbers (
toll-free
A toll-free telephone number or freephone number is a telephone number that is billed for all arriving calls. For the calling party, a call to a toll-free number from a landline is free of charge. A toll-free number is identified by a dialing prefi ...
,
voicemail
A voicemail system (also known as voice message or voice bank) is a computer-based system that allows users and subscribers to exchange personal voice messages; to select and deliver voice information; and to process transactions relating to ind ...
, premium-numbers, television shows, etc.)
*0xxxx: Non-geographical numbers (land-line rate). Common with e.g. taxi companies and commercial services. Dialled from outside Norway as +47 0xxxx
*xxxx: Used in
SMS
Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...
, mostly used for campaigns and bot messages. You can't reply back in most of these numbers. They also cost money to send. They are very often cheap if in Norway, sometimes free.
Mobile numbers
*9x xx xx xx (Previously formatted as 9xx xx xxx)
*40991: Mobile numbers (older)
*4x xx xx xx: Mobile numbers (newer). (Previously formatted as 4xx xx xxx)
*58 xx xx xx xx xx: Mobile numbers (
M2M traffic)
*59 xx xx xx: Mobile numbers (newer, M2M traffic)
Emergency
*110: Fire brigade
*112: Police
*113: Ambulance
*116 123: Mental Health help lifeline. Also the Norwegian Equivalent of
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline / 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
Special numbers
*00: International prefix, plus (+) is more common today
*01: Reserved for future changes
*02xxx to 09xxx: 5-digit non-geographical numbers (these numbers are mostly equivalent to 815 non-geographical numbers, and can be acquired by any company or organization given availability and a fee of between NOK 3,300 and NOK 125,000 per year)
*100-189: Standardized special numbers (emergency numbers, road and public transport information, etc.)
*19x: Operator-specific special numbers
*1850 to 1899: Directory services
*116xxx:
Harmonised services of social value
References
Sources
Nummerplan: E.164 www.nkom.no. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
Ansatte jan.mayen.no. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
External links
Numberplan: E.164 a complete plan from the
Norwegian Post and Telecommunications Authority
The Norwegian Communications Authority ( no, Nasjonal kommnikasjonsmyndighet), prior to 2015 the Norwegian Post and Telecommunications Authority () is a Norwegian government agency responsible for controlling and regulating the telecommunication ...
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
Telephone numbers
A telephone number is a sequence of digits assigned to a landline telephone subscriber station connected to a telephone line or to a wireless electronic telephony device, such as a radio telephone or a mobile telephone, or to other devices f ...
Telephone numbers
A telephone number is a sequence of digits assigned to a landline telephone subscriber station connected to a telephone line or to a wireless electronic telephony device, such as a radio telephone or a mobile telephone, or to other devices f ...
{{Telephonenumber-stub