Area code 246

Not to be confused with 246 country code for the British Indian Ocean Territory (Diego Garcia).

13°10′12″N 59°33′09″W / 13.17000°N 59.55250°W / 13.17000; -59.55250

Area code 246 is the telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for Barbados.[1] The sequence 246 spells BIM on an alpha-numeric telephone keypad, a nickname for the island.[2]

Telecommunication services and telephone numbers in Barbados are administered by the Ministry of Finance, Investment, Telecommunications and Energy (MFIE) of the Government of Barbados.[3]

As a member of the North American Numbering Plan, Barbados uses telephone country code 1 for inbound routing of international calls. The telephone number format consists of the three-digit area code, the three-digit central office prefix and the local four-digit line or station number. Dialing procedures within the country and abroad comform to NANP standards. Thus, Barbados telephone numbers are quoted per International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Recommendation E.123 in the style +1 246 NXX-XXXX for international use.[4]

  1. ^ Admin. (2008). "Policies, Plan & Registers". Telecoms Unit. Ministry of Finance, Investment, Telecommunications and Energy (MFIE). Archived from the original on 2010-06-10. Retrieved 2010-07-08.
  2. ^ Conor Looney, Chief Executive Officer of Digicel Barbados, stated «the area code 26 spells BIM on our keypads», as quoted in “Digicel throwing its support behind BIM” Loop News, 2016.10.27.
  3. ^ "About Us". Telecoms Unit. Ministry of Finance, Investment, Telecommunications and Energy (MFIE). Archived from the original on 4 July 2010. Retrieved 8 July 2010.
  4. ^ Admin. (2008). "E.123 : Notation for national and international telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and Web addresses". International Telecommunication Union. Retrieved 8 July 2010.