Telephone numbers in Kazakhstan
Location of Kazakhstan
Location
CountryKazakhstan
ContinentAsia
RegulatorMinistry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Kazakhstan
NSN length10
Format(xxx) xxx xx xx
(xxxx) xx xx xx
(xxxxx) x xx xx
Access codes
Country code+7
International access8~10
Long-distance8~

Telephone numbers in Kazakhstan are regulated under the auspices of the Telecommunications Committee of the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovations, and Aerospace Industry in the Republic of Kazakhstan.[1] They are administered by telecommunication providers, notably Kazakhtelecom, a state-backed and the largest national operator.

Kazakhstan has been sharing the country code 7 with Russia since its independence in 1991. In 2021, ITU reserved the code 997[2] for Kazakhstan, and the country planned to activate it in January 2023. In early 2023, however, Kazakhstan applied for a change of code to 77.[3] In late 2023, Kazakhstan decided to keep country code 7.[4]

History

Following the break-up of the Soviet Union, Russia and Kazakhstan retained the same country code 7 for inbound calling. Under an agreement with Russia signed on 11 June 2006, Kazakhstan was assigned zone codes 6xx and 7xx (x = 0 to 9) under the unified plan.

Geographical numbers

Geographical (landline) telephone numbers in Kazakhstan consist of ten digits:

  • zone code: the leading three digits
  • area code: the following one or two digits
  • subscriber number: the last six or five digits, depending on the length of the area code.

Geographic numbers use zone codes in the range from 710 to 729.[5] Prior to the 2006 agreement, landlines used zone codes in the 3xx range; as zone codes 3xx were assigned to Russia, zone codes in Kazakhstan were changed by substituting the leading 3 with 7 in mid-2007.

Non-geographical numbers

Non-geographical numbers start with 75x or 76x.[5]

Mobile numbers

Mobile numbers have 10 digits starting with 70x or 77x.[5]

Dialling procedures

Local and national dialling

Calls within a single area code can be made by dialling the seven-digit subscriber number alone. For long-distance calls, callers from landline numbers dial the long-distance prefix 8, wait for a tone, and then dial the zone code and number. Modern exchanges no longer require waiting for the tone, nor does mobile telephony where the long-distance prefix is not required.

International dialling

The international dialling prefix is 8~10 – callers dial 8, wait for a tone, and then dial 10 immediately followed by the country code and the remainder of the number. Modern exchanges no longer require waiting for the tone.

Country code

Kazakhstan is a member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and has been using an ITU-assigned country code 7 jointly with Russia since the breakup of the Soviet Union. In 2021, ITU agreed to reserve country code 997 for Kazakhstan, which the government planned to activate on 1 January 2023 with a two-year period of permissive dialling using the former code 7.[2]

In 2022, however, Kazakhstan filed another application to ITU, this time for the assignment of the country code 77.[3] In December 2022, and then again in March 2023, an ITU expert group recommended against this proposal, pointing to the unavailability of the 77 code for assignments as well as the ITU policy of assigning only three-digit country codes.[6][7]

In November 2023, it was reported that Kazakhstan had decided to abandon plans of transiting away from 7 and instead had been working on a new code-sharing agreement with Russia.[8][4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Documents-Telecommunications Committee of the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan". Retrieved 2023-03-08.
  2. 1 2 "Kazakhstan Will Get Its Own International Dialing Code And Abandon Russian One". Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. 2021-09-21. Retrieved 2023-03-08.
  3. 1 2 "Kazakhstan May Change the Calling Code from +7 to +77 - Qazaqstan Monitor". Qazaqstan Monitor. Retrieved 2023-03-22.
  4. 1 2 "«Семёрка» остаётся: Казахстан передумал менять телефонный код". Forbes Kazakhstan. 2023-11-15. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  5. 1 2 3 Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Informatization and Communication. "Communication of 7.II.2012". ITU. Retrieved 11 April 2012.
  6. ↑ "Liaison statement on issues arising from discussions on re-numbering of Kazakhstan's E.164 country code". ITU. 6 December 2022. Archived from the original on 2023-05-24. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
  7. ↑ "Liaison statement on ITU-T SG2 lead study group activities (June 2022 to March 2023) [from ITU-T SG2]". www.itu.int. 3 May 2023. Archived from the original on 6 June 2023. Retrieved 2023-06-06.
  8. ↑ "The Week in Kazakhstan: Plus Seven - Аналитический интернет-журнал Власть". Vlast (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-12-20.


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