Area codes in the Caribbean


Several countries in the Caribbean participate in the North American Numbering Plan, 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 begin integration of the Caribbean telephone networks into the NANP.
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 areaArea codeYear of assignment
Anguilla2641996
Antigua and Barbuda2681996
The Bahamas2421995
Barbados2461995
Bermuda4411994
British Virgin Islands2841996
Cayman Islands3451996
Dominica7671996
Dominican Republic809, 829, 8491958, 2005, 2009
Grenada4731996
Jamaica876, 6581996, 2018
Montserrat6641996
Puerto Rico787, 9391995, 2000
Saint Kitts and Nevis8691996
Saint Lucia7581996
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines7841997
Sint Maarten7212009
Trinidad and Tobago8681996
Turks and Caicos Islands6491997
U.S. Virgin Islands3401997

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 849

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 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 identified a Caribbean calling destination by analyzing the first six digits dialed, 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.
territorynumber formnotes
Anguilla809-497-xxxx
Antigua and Barbuda809-46x-xxxx
The Bahamas809-32x-xxxx
through
809-37x-xxxx
Barbados809-42x-xxxx
809-43x-xxxx
Bermuda809-xxx-xxxx
British Virgin Islands809-49x-xxxx
Carriacou809-44x-xxxx
The Cayman Islands809-94x-xxxx
The Commonwealth of Dominica809-44x-xxxx
The Dominican Republic809-5xx-xxxx
809-68x-xxxx
Grenada809-44x-xxxx
Jamaica809-9xx-xxxx
Montserrat809-491-xxxx
Puerto Rico809-7xx-xxxx
809-8xx-xxxx
809-25x-xxxx
809-26x-xxxx
809-27x-xxxx
809-28x-xxxx
Saint Kitts and Nevis809-465-xxxx
Saint Lucia809-45x-xxxx
Saint Vincent809-45x-xxxx
Trinidad and Tobago809-6xx-xxxx
Turks and Caicos Islands809-946-xxxx
The U.S. Virgin Islands809-77x-xxxx

An incumbent service provider listed the numbering system as follows:
Numbering formatCountry
29x-xxxxBermuda
3xx-xxxxThe Bahamas
4xx-xxxxBarbados
44x-xxxxThe Commonwealth of Dominica
44x-xxxxGrenada
45x-xxxxSaint Lucia
45x-xxxxSaint Vincent
46x-xxxxAntigua and Barbuda
465-xxxxSaint Kitts
469-xxxxNevis
491-xxxxMontserrat
497-xxxxAnguilla
49x-xxxxBritish Virgin Islands
5xx-xxxxThe Dominican Republic
68x-xxxxThe Dominican Republic
6xx-xxxxTrinidad and Tobago
77x-xxxxThe U.S. Virgin Islands
7xx-xxxxPuerto Rico
8xx-xxxxPuerto Rico
946-xxxxThe Turks and Caicos Islands
94x-xxxxThe Cayman Islands
9xx-xxxxJamaica

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.
territorycountry code
Aruba297
Haiti509
Cuba53
Guadeloupe590
Saint Barthélemy590
Saint Martin590
Martinique596
Caribbean Netherlands599
Curaçao599