Telephone numbers in Russia are administered by Roskomnadzor, and Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation.[1] Russia's National Numbering Plan (NNP) is a four-level telephone numbering plan with local, zone, country, and international scopes, implementing a closed numbering plan, in which the number of digits of all national significant numbers (NSN) assigned to subscriber telephones is fixed at ten,[2] with three digits for the area code, and a seven-digit subscriber number which includes a zone code of up to two digits. Internationally, Russia participates in the numbering plans of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) provided by recommendations E.164 and E.123, using the telephone country code 7.
Russia shares its numbering plan with Kazakhstan, designating two area codes for routing calls to that country.
After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the country used an open numbering plan, having a varying number of digits. Local telecommunications regulators had planned to abandon this system by 2009, but postponed the changeover until 2010,[3] later pushed once more until 2012[4] and finally approved for implementation in the period of 2020–2025.[5]
Historically, country code 7 was used as the country calling code for all of the Soviet Union. Following the Soviet break-up, all of its former republics, save for Russia and Kazakhstan, switched to new country codes. Following Abkhazia's unrecognized claim to have seceded from Georgia, Abkhazia switched to the Russian telephone codes 7 840 for landlines and 7 940 for mobile phones, although it still can be reached via the Georgian telephone code 995 44.[6]
The international dialing prefix in Russia is "8", callers dial "8", area code, and number. The long-distance prefix is "8". Plans exist to change those prefixes to "0" for national and "00" for international dialing,[7] to be implemented by 2020.[needs update]
For reaching long-distance and international destinations from a fixed line, a subscriber may select from two services: Pre-Select or Hot-Choice. With Pre-Select, the subscriber calls a prescribed free number (8-800-333-0990 for MTT or 8-800-100-2525 RT) and signs up initially for service. They may also sign a statement at the phone company indicating their choice of provider. With this provider, the prefixes and dialing procedures for non-local calls are the ones currently in use.
The default regulation in Moscow is Hot-Choice (not available yet on all exchanges; regional operators apply their own regulation depending on availability). Available operators are:
The dialing pattern for Hot-Choice subscribers is different. After dialing "8", the subscriber waits for a tone and then dials the operator code (OC) either for a long-distance call or an international call.
Note: the tone signal after dialing "8" is compulsory on old analog exchanges and optional on digital exchanges.
xxx-xx-xx (exception: Moscow—see below), e.g.:
Local phone numbers in Russia may be made up of five (x-xx-xx), six (xx-xx-xx), or seven (xxx-xx-xx) digits.
Moscow City has three area codes assigned: 495, 498 and 499:
Calls between these codes are local calls and are not charged at long-distance rates.
Pre-Selected Operator: 8-tone-ABC xxx-xx-xx (where ABC is the area code)
Hot-Choice Operator selection: 8-tone-OC ABC xxx-xx-xx (where OC is the Operator Code and ABC is the area code)
Pre-Selected Operator: 8-tone-10 International number
Hot-Choice Operator selection: 8-tone-OC International number where OC is the Operator Code
+7 ABC xxx-xx-xx
where ABC is the area code
The dialing code range 4xx was introduced on 1 December 2005 to replace 0xx, in order to make it possible to adopt the ITU convention of 0 and 00 dialing prefixes for local and international dialing respectively. The old '095' dialing code, along with 19 other Russian area codes starting with '0', expired on 31 January 2006.[17]
On 7 May 2022, following the annexation of Donetsk and Luhansk by Russian forces, the two oblasts were integrated into the Russian numbering plan.
In a press conference in December 2013 Minister of Emergency Situations, Vladimir Puchkov said that the unified system runs in a full pilot mode from 2014 and will fully enter to operational mode in 2016.[19]