Several countries in the Caribbean participate in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), which is a telephone numbering plan designed after World War II by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company for initially the United States and Canada.

In 1958, AT&T delegated area code 809 for Direct Distance Dialing to the Caribbean to facilitate integration of the Caribbean telephone networks into the continental long-distance service.

From 1958 to 1999, most of the British West Indies in the Caribbean Basin, Bermuda, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico shared area code 809. By the mid-1990s, with the proliferation of fax machines, mobile phones, computers, and pagers in the region, the pool of available central office codes was exhausting. Beginning with Bermuda in November 1994, and The Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and Barbados in 1995, several countries in the Caribbean received individual area code assignments from the NANPA, effectively splitting area code 809. By 1999, it was retained only by the Dominican Republic, following the departure of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines from using the area code.

Assignments Numbering plan area Area code Year of assignment Anguilla 264 1996 Antigua and Barbuda 268 1996 The Bahamas 242 1995 Barbados 246 1995 Bermuda 441 1994 British Virgin Islands 284 1996 Cayman Islands 345 1996 Dominica 767 1996 Dominican Republic 809, 829, 849 1958, 2005, 2009 Grenada 473 1996 Jamaica 876, 658 1996, 2018 Montserrat 664 1996 Puerto Rico 787, 939 1995, 2000 Saint Kitts and Nevis 869 1996 Saint Lucia 758 1996 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 784 1997 Sint Maarten 721 2009 Trinidad and Tobago 868 1996 Turks and Caicos Islands 649 1997 U.S. Virgin Islands 340 1997

Sint Maarten was part of the Netherlands Antilles until its dissolution in 2010. It is a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Sint Maarten used the country code 599 of the Netherlands Antilles until joining the NANP on September 30, 2011, with area code 721.

Former assignments within 809 The following was the 1958-1995 numbering plan for 809. Starting in the 1980s, Puerto Rico, Bermuda and the Dominican Republic began to use prefixes from unused ranges throughout the 2xx to 9xx range. Historic (1960s-mid-1980s) ranges are shown in parentheses.

The number pool of the area code was divided between the regions by the national number, which was from two to four digits long, leaving five to three digits, respectively, of the total of ten digits of a complete telephone number for local telephone number assignments. The national number appeared in local telephone directories.

Caribbean nations with a larger numbering resource requirement used seven-digit dialing, and had no need for a national number.

Non-NANP jurisdictions (i.e., the rest of the world) identified a Caribbean calling destination by analyzing the first six digits dialed (1809xx), therefore, faced the difficulty where a seventh digit was required to identify the specific nation. Rates based on destination would have to be the same for all destinations sharing the same six digits, e.g., St. Lucia and St. Vincent would have to be the same rate; Anguilla, British Virgin Islands and Montserrat would need to be the same rate; Antigua, Barbuda, Nevis and St. Kitts also would have to be the same rate. Since Cable and Wireless was the provider in most or all cases, the same corporate entity benefited from the revenue for incoming calls. The assignment of new area codes after 1994 resolved this since only the first four digits would be required to distinguish each country.

territory number form notes Anguilla 809-497-xxxx (National number 4972, then expanded to four digit local numbers as N.N. 497) Antigua and Barbuda 809-46x-xxxx (National number 46) The Bahamas 809-32x-xxxxthrough809-37x-xxxx Barbados 809-42x-xxxx809-43x-xxxx (National number 43, then changed to 7D, as 42 or 43) Bermuda 809-xxx-xxxx (National number 29, then changed to 7D, as 23 or 29) British Virgin Islands 809-49x-xxxx (National number 49) Carriacou 809-44x-xxxx The Cayman Islands 809-94x-xxxx (National number 94) The Commonwealth of Dominica 809-44x-xxxx (National number 44 shared with Grenada) The Dominican Republic 809-5xx-xxxx809-68x-xxxx Grenada 809-44x-xxxx (National number 44 shared with Dominica) Jamaica 809-9xx-xxxx (began with 9, other than 94x) Montserrat 809-491-xxxx (National number 491) Puerto Rico 809-7xx-xxxx809-8xx-xxxx809-25x-xxxx809-26x-xxxx809-27x-xxxx809-28x-xxxx Saint Kitts and Nevis 809-465-xxxx (National numbers 465 for St. Kitts, 469 for Nevis) Saint Lucia 809-45x-xxxx (National number 45 shared with St Vincent) Saint Vincent 809-45x-xxxx (National number 45 shared with St. Lucia) Trinidad and Tobago 809-6xx-xxxx (began with 6, other than 68) Turks and Caicos Islands 809-946-xxxx (National number 946) The U.S. Virgin Islands 809-77x-xxxx

An incumbent service provider listed the numbering system as follows:

Numbering format Country 29x-xxxx Bermuda 3xx-xxxx The Bahamas 4xx-xxxx Barbados 44x-xxxx The Commonwealth of Dominica 44x-xxxx Grenada 45x-xxxx Saint Lucia 45x-xxxx Saint Vincent 46x-xxxx Antigua and Barbuda 465-xxxx Saint Kitts 469-xxxx Nevis 491-xxxx Montserrat 497-xxxx Anguilla (started as 4972 + three) 49x-xxxx British Virgin Islands 5xx-xxxx The Dominican Republic 68x-xxxx The Dominican Republic 6xx-xxxx Trinidad and Tobago 77x-xxxx The U.S. Virgin Islands 7xx-xxxx Puerto Rico 8xx-xxxx Puerto Rico 946-xxxx The Turks and Caicos Islands 94x-xxxx The Cayman Islands 9xx-xxxx Jamaica

Other territories Not all of the Caribbean islands are members of the North American Numbering Plan. The following countries have country codes assigned by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

territory country code Aruba 297 Haiti 509 Cuba 53 Guadeloupe 590 Saint Barthélemy Saint Martin Martinique 596 Caribbean Netherlands 599 Curaçao

See also 809 scam List of North American Numbering Plan area codes Telephone numbers in the Americas List of telephone country codes :Category:Telephone numbers by country

References

External links North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA) Eastern Caribbean Telecommunications Authority (ECTEL)