Mahmoud Kassem

Egypt calling code is +20 and it was never +2. If you are living in Egypt and you think its calling code is +2 then make no doubt about it, you are not too far from ignorance, you might just be few steps away.

You do not believe me? Ask Google.com for: Egypt calling code or visit Wikipedia.org Egypt page

It does not need a geek to know your own country calling code and I am not talking about illiterate people, I am talking about University graduates (considered to be highly educated, not by me though).

I knew this problem long time ago, but I did not consider it worth to write about it. Now, what encouraged me to write about it is the large number of websites using 002 or +2 as Egypt calling code. Search google.com and you will find many popular websites, this is not the place to give examples of them.

I guess the problem came from a misunderstanding of the trunk prefix '0'. Vodafone Egypt calling code is '10' not '010' and Alexandria code is '3' not '03'. (Vodafone Egypt has an additional calling code(s) and this is not our story today)

From History of calling codes:
+31 was the first calling code for Egypt (1960-1963), at this time +20 was used and for the first time by Poland, now Poland calling code is +48.
The zones distribution applied in 1964 gave zone 2 for mostly Africa and some Atlantic islands making Egypt (also previously known as the United Arab Republic) calling code +20. Yes, zone 3 and 4 were given to Europe.