The other day I realized that my phone showed up the name and picture from the address book for some of the callers and not for others even when all of them were present as Contacts.
So I started investigating, trying to find something in common between the callers.
I found out that all the people calling from mobile phones was identified correctly but the ones calling from land lines were not. Odd ...
Next step I searched my Curve settings looking for the place where you typically tell the phone what your area code is. [ Go to the Call Log application, hit Menu /Options /Smart Dialing ]
There you will find something like this
Country Code: +54
Area Code: 911
National Number Length: 10
We are interested in the first three rows.
The configuration showed above is the correct one for Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Of course the phone did not came correctly configured)
I will explain a little for you to configure it for your location.
1. First Country Code, you just pick it up from a list, no much to say about it, you just need to know what your country code is. +54 is Argentina, +1 is US. Checkout this country code list.
2. Then Area Code, well it is different in every country, it can be 1, 2, 3 digits or more. You don't need to include the long distance prefix here. For instance Buenos Aires' area code is 11. But if you are calling to Buenos Aires from any other city in Argentina you typically dial "0 11". Zero being the domestic long distance prefix. That should not be included in the Area Code, as it is not part of the telephone number.
If you are wondering why I put "911" I will explain below.
3. And last National Number Length, that means the number of digits used for telephone numbers in your city INCLUDING the area code. For instance if in your area local numbers have 8 digits and your area code is 2 digits, you need to set it to 10.
As long as things are standardized along your country you will be good with this settings.
Notes: A couple of extra tips and details.
In Argentina when you need to dial a mobile phone from a regular number you need to add 15 at the beginning. That is NOT part of the number it is just you acknowledging to pay a little extra because your are calling a cell phone (it is a consequence of CPP Calling Party Pays).
Given the fact that we are configuring a cell phone, and when you are calling from a cell phone you are aware that you will be paying the call at a mobile rate, it is unnecessary to dial 15.
Now that 15 story only applies if you are inside the country and is of no interest for this article.
But, there is always a but ..., a fully qualified cell phone number in Buenos Aires, Argentina for instance looks like this +54 9 11 xxxx-xxxx. What in heaven is that 9 ? Well it actually means you are dialing a cell phone in Argentina and not a land line ..., but nothing else. It has the same meaning of the 15, not that you care much if you are calling overseas ... but it is mandatory to reach an Argentine cell phone from ANY phone in the world.
And that is the reason why I tell my BlackBerry that my area code is 911 instead of 11. This way the phone correctly identifies cellphones calling me (my carrier send a fully qualified caller id for cellphones), and it also correctly identifies land lines, which my carrier sends as national numbers(i.e.: 11 xxxx-xxxx)
No comments:
Post a Comment