Originally Posted by
OskiBear
As an example, if I'm in London, do I dial the number for the US embassy in the same fashion as if I were dialing from a landline in London? Or, the same as if I had a UK-based cellphone? Or as if I'm dialing from the US?
I usually program in the "+" and country code. However, sometimes the dialing guides say that you don't need an extra "0" or some other such number if dialing from within the country.
All of this confuses me greatly and I'd like to know before I ever actually have to make an urgent call.
I can't speak for all American carriers, but at least for a US domiciled Verizon cell, calling the American embassy in London would be dialed as:
+44 207 499 9000. If you saw a number listed with "(0)" in front of the 207, at least in the UK example, it is likely for domestic calling from UK lines only.
In some countries there may be an extra zero in a phone number, and particularly when the phone is a cell. If I see a zero in front of a city code, I drop it. In the embassy example above, a zero before "207" would be removed. Note that large cities may have numerous different city codes, and oddly structure city codes dedicated to cell phone numbers. No difference than the fact there are probably ten area codes within 40 miles of your LA Basin house.
Now if I was in London and wanted to call the US embassy in Ankara Turkey, I would use same logic. I would dial +90 312 455 5555. The "90" is the Turkish country code, and the "312" is the city code for Ankara
It's worth doing a bit of exploring based upon your likely use scenarios before you leave, about dialing rules in a country, and familiarize yourself with a country's city code structure (akin to US area codes). Try this to start:
https://www.howtocallabroad.com/ .
Remember, your US based cell phone is behaving not like a phone based in the country you are visiting. Hence "+1" in front is going to be needed.
P.S. Someone else will have to comment if any of the US cell carriers would require "011" in front of the "1". Personally haven't seen that in ages, when using a cell phone for a call initiation.