Forum: travel.stackexchange.com
Tags: <usa><cellphones><communication><roaming>
Title: How to call a number from another country while I'm in another country myself?
Question: Here's the situtation: there's a team meeting coming, situated in the US. I'm from Brazil and wish to call a coworker from Pakistan arriving there.  My number is +55... and his is +92... Is there any difference when calling his number on my cellphone if we're both in the US? Or can I just dial +92... as usual?

Answers:
sents: text: Or can I just dial +92...
text: as usual?
text: Yes.
text: Although it is the + prefix that's the "magic" here.
text: It is short hand for the outbound international dialling code for whatever country you are dialling from .
text: This is what allows you to use the same (international format) phone number anywhere in the world.
text: If you are calling from the US then the phone network substitutes + with 011 (the international dial-out code for the US), or if calling from the UK, 00 .
text: Etc.
text: So, the alternative, if dialing from the US would be to dial 01192... - but this will only work in the US (or any country that uses the same dial-out code). Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_international_call_prefixes
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/13329/MrWhite
score: 76
sents: text: You can just dial as usual, just like you would to call him at home, and the call will go through.
text: But you'll be charged for an international call, however your cell phone plan handles international roaming.
text: You may find it makes more sense to plan in advance to use Skype, WhatsApp, WeChat, etc..., which will use only your data connection (or wifi) and not billable minutes from calls.
text: You'd want to check with your carrier to determine your rates for roaming in the US and/or consider obtaining a SIM card from a US carrier, depending on the costs and your expected usage.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/13650/Zach Lipton
score: 26
sents: text: Yes, you should dial +92, as usual.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/19400/phoog
score: 8
sents: text: If we're talking cellphones here, just get into the habit of always storing the proper international prefix with the number.
text: It will not cost you extra to dial such a number as a local call, and if you happen to be elsewhere the number will still work as is.
text: For instance - I'm danish and all my local danish numbers are prefixed with +45.
text: They work perfectly both within Denmark and when I'm elsewhere.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/70608/P. Goetterup
score: 4
sents: text: One has to keep two subjects separately here: Dialling properly to make sure the call goes through.
text: How much the call will cost you.
text: While the subject of call cost would possibly be an interesting one (though these days less than 2-3 years ago) somethink different is important to make sure you will be dialling the correct number.
text: In case the person you are calling has provided their number properly in international format, i.e. +yyyxxxxx, you won't face a problem.
text: But in case you see a phone number written in national format (i.e. without a country code) and you found out the country code and want to build the international format youself, be careful.
text: Many countries (my experience is from Europa mostly) use geographic area codes for landlines and kind of "virtual" area codes for mobiles and you can dial from landline to landline within the same area code without having to dial the area code.
text: The interesting difference between some countries comes with the leading zero in front of the area code.
text: In some countries, you have to omit it, in others not.
text: Example from Germany: Landline in Berlin: 030 1234546International format would be +49 30 123456
text: (you drop the 0) Example from Italy: Landline in Bolzano: 0471
text: 123456International format would be +39 0471 123456
text: (you keep the 0)
text: The rule of thumb is: More often than not, you drop the 0.
text: Just in case you find out it doesn't work, just insert it.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/18879/TorstenS
score: 1

Summary of the answers:
You should dial +92 as usual, and the call will go through.
You can just dial as usual.