Telephone numbers in Bulgaria

Country Code : +359
International Call Prefix: 00

Telephone numbers in Bulgaria are under an open dialing plan, similar to those of Germany and Austria. Area codes should only dialed when necessary. Calling the same area and including an unnecessary area code will cause the call to be billed as if the call was to another area. Area codes are prepended with a trunk code of 0 when dialled domestically.

For a very long time, the state-owned Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC) had a monopoly on fixed telephone networks. However, it ended when a special law was adopted. BTC was privatized in 2004 and competing operators appeared.

Larger areas, such as Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, and Burgas, are subdivided into zones. Although one cannot further reduce the number of dialed digits, the number itself shows which zone it is located in. For example, in Sofia, numbers starting with 2 , 82 , 92 are located in the Western suburbs, 7 , 87 , 97 in the Eastern suburbs, and 98 in the central area.

In the recent decade there is an intensive process of replacing the old analog switches with modern digital ones. In areas where both analog and digital switchers are operating, a subscriber number shows by its first digit if it is connected to an analog or a digital switch. In some areas it is even possible to guess if a subscriber number was changed from analog to digital during its existence or was subscribed as digital initially. For example, in Blagoevgrad a number starting with 88 was subscribed as digital, and a number starting with a single 8 was analog before.

The first digit also shows if a particular subscriber number is operated by BTC or another operator.

The area codes are always cited with the trunk code. However, within the area, or when the Sofia code of (0)2 can be guessed from the context, it is omitted.

This change provokes an error in citing mobile numbers, quite similar to that of erroneous UK telephone codes. The first digit of the subscriber number is most often cited as part of the access code, e.g. (0)887 XXXXXX , instead of the correct (0)88 7XXXXXX . This error remains for new subscriber numbers and even for Vivacom numbers which have never been six digits long. However, unlike the situation in UK, this error has no effect since a mobile number must always be dialled with the access code.

Dialing to a mobile network requires the access code together with the 0 . Dialing from a mobile network requires either an area or access code with the trunk or international format ( (0)YY YXXXXXX or +359 YY YXXXXXX ). The latter becomes a normal practice, since most people use number lists of their handsets, more people use their phones in roaming and all four operators show the caller ID in international format.

A1 Bulgaria, Telenor Bulgaria, Vivacom, Lycamobile Bulgaria, Mtel, Cooolbox, Tivicom, Max Telecom, CRC,