Tele-Tech's Blog

VoIP: The Country?
Country Code 883 was assigned for global use for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in late 2008, a development that went relatively un-noticed in non-VoIP arenas. The ITU issued the country code at the request of Voxbone, a Brussels, Belgium-based provider of international inbound numbers and VoIP transport.

Unlike country codes that are associated with specific countries, (i.e., +44 for the UK or +52 for Mexico) +883 numbers are global, and they move with you from place to place, so they’re not associated with any specific country. Voxbone markets the numbers as iNum, and each phone number assigned in country code 883 will be 12 digits, which means that about 10 million numbers have been allocated to Voxbone for this service. The company estimates that all 10 million of those numbers will be assigned to its customers by the end of 2009.

Currently, Voxbone acts as a wholesaler, with VoIP-originated calls placed to +883 numbers passed through the company’s routers and delivered to the appropriate VoIP service provider. Callers on the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) must dial a Voxbone access number, and then the +883 number they are calling in order to reach a subscriber in country code 883. Voxbone hopes to eventually negotiate agreements for direct interconnection with the PSTN.
Will country code +883 be widely accepted? Voxbone expects the service to be a low-cost, barrier-free way to connect callers worldwide. But in places like Germany where separate, non-geographic area codes within the country exist, calls to those numbers typically cost more than calls to geographically-based numbers. There may not be much incentive for traditional carriers to deliver calls to the “virtual” country code at a low cost. And the need to dial an access number before the subscriber phone number may be a hindrance to acceptance if direct interconnection to the PSTN is not achieved.

What do you think? We’d like to hear from you! Please share your comments regarding the effect of country code +883 at your company or in the industry as a whole. Leave your comments here!