Telephone numbers in Italy

Telephone numbers in Italy

Map of Italy colored according to landline area codes
Country	Italy
Continent	Europe
Regulator	Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni
Numbering plan type	Open
Format	0x… xxxxx… (geographical) 3xx xxxxxx… (mobile)
Country code	+39
International access	00
Long-distance	None
List of Italy area codes

Telephone numbers in Italy are managed by the Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (AGCOM), a national regulatory authority for the communication industry located in Rome.

Italian telephone numbers are defined by an open telephone numbering plan that assigns subscriber telephone numbers of six to eleven digits. In addition, other short codes are used for special services. The plan is organized by types of services,^[1] indicated by the first digit. Geographic landline numbers start with the digit 0, while mobile telephone numbers start with 3. Four types of emergency services use three-digit telephone numbers in the group 11X, including 112 for the Carabinieri.^[2] Other initial digits denote other services, such as toll-free numbers.

The dialing procedures for callers mandate that the full telephone number is always dialed, including the area code, which is called prefix (prefisso in Italian). Since 1998, the leading 0 of landline numbers has to be included also when calling from abroad, in contrast with the practice in many other countries.

The country code for calling Italy from abroad is 39.^[3] For calling foreign destinations from Italy, the international call prefix is 00, as is standard in most European countries.

Italian regulations prescribe no fixed rules for grouping the digits of telephone numbers for printing or display. Various grouping schemes are commonly used and a telephone number is likely to be written or pronounced differently by different people. Commonly used formatting or punctuation characters include the space character, the dot, full stop, and the hyphen.