The Brazilian telephone numbering plan uses a two-digit area code and eight-digit local phone numbers for landlines and nine digits for mobile lines. Public utility services use short phone numbers (usually three digits), always starting with 1.
Local dialing As established by ANATEL, the Brazilian federal telecommunications regulatory agency, the format for a local phone number is nnnn-nnnn (eight digits) for landlines, and nnnnn-nnnn (nine digits) for mobile lines. The first digits of the local number identify the service associated with the phone number: 100 to 199: special short public utility numbers (see below) 2000 to 5999: landlines 6000 to 8999: Unused (iDEN was disestablished in 2018) 91000 to 99999: mobile phones
0 is reserved for long-distance calls and cannot be used as a local initial digit (see below). 901 to 909 have been reserved for automated system of national collect calls (see below) since 1982 and cannot be used as local initial digits. 900 was used to premium-rate telephone numbers in the 1990s, but is not in use now.
Until the 1990s, there were also certain regions in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul with three-digit area codes and five (n-nnnn) or six-digit (nn-nnnn) phone numbers. In the city of São Paulo, although the area code has two digits, there were still six-digit telephones in use; 3X-nnnn phone numbers (with X=4-7) changed to 60X-nnnn and then to 310X-nnnn, 9X-nnnn phone numbers (with X=2 or 3) changed to 69X-nnnn and then to 669X-nnnn (today 269X-nnnn), and 6n-nnnn phone numbers which were changed directly to the eight-digit format (nnnn-nnnn) at that time. Even shorter numbers used to exist in previous decades, especially in small towns and before direct distance dialing became universal.
In the late 1990s, the 7-digit landline numbers beginning with 9 in the area of DDD 11 also had their prefixes changed, and their numbers were replaced in most cases by prefixes beginning with 69 (now 29) or 64 (now 24) in the cities of São Paulo and Guarulhos respectively.
Landlines using prefixes beginning with 8 and 7 had their prefixes changed up to 2000 and 2001 respectively for 8-digit numbers, and new area codes 22, 28, 64, 66, 87, 88, 89, 93, 94, 97 and 99 are included at this time.
Until 2005, some localities still used seven-digit local numbers (nnn-nnnn), such numbers being changed to eight digits (nnnn-nnnn).
Except in the case of the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the numbers of 7-digit landlines were given the number 3 preceding the old number, and the numbers of 7-digit mobile phones were given the number 9 preceding old number between late 90's until the inclusion of the ninth digit.
In the state of Rio de Janeiro, only the 7-digit numbers beginning with 3 and 8 received the 3 preceding the old number, while the other numbers received the number 2 preceding the old number.
In the country region and litoral of the state of São Paulo, in many cases the old prefix of 7-digit numbers have been completely changed, but this numbers standardized with an 8-digit number starting at 3 in landlines and 9 in mobiles until the inclusion of the ninth digit.
In the Greater São Paulo and neighborhood cities using DDD 11, the cities today uses numbers initializing with 2, 3, 4 or 5, with the prefixes started in 2 are used mainly in São Paulo and Guarulhos, started in 3 mainly in São Paulo and Osasco, started in 4 used mainly in the metropolitan region and started in 5 used exclusively in numbers allocated to the city of São Paulo except 57 numbers, allocated for rural landline numbers.
Numbers beginning with 8 are reserved for mobile phones and numbers beginning with 7 after change of prefixes started for this number in 2001 were initially reserved for trunking, however they were later also intended for mobile phones.
Until 2008, the initial digit 6 was used for landlines in some parts of São Paulo and neighbouring cities in area code 11, but Anatel required that 6 be released for mobile use. Fixed-line numbers starting with 6 in that area were gradually changed during 2008 to new prefixes starting with 2. In other areas of Brazil, the initial digit 6 was not in use at that time, so no change was necessary because at this time landlines used prefixes beginning with 2, 3 or 4 outside the Greater São Paulo region.
Exceptionally, at the beginning of the 2010s, cell phones with a prefix starting at 5 were enabled in Greater São Paulo, and in this transition period, which anticipated the inclusion of the ninth digit (9) preceding the old cell phone numbers, the telephony used intercept messages to indicate that calls to such numbers were being directed to mobile phone numbers.
Today, landline numbers usually use the number 3 at the beginning of the number. The use of the initial digit 2 is occasional except in Greater São Paulo and the state of Rio de Janeiro. The use of initial digit 4 is also occasional except in Greater São Paulo and digit 5 is only used in São Paulo and rural landlines using 57 prefix.
Numbers in the 300n and 400n format are commonly used by companies to provide customer service using local numbers. (see below)
Numbers starting with 1500 and 1700 are used by some Internet service providers (ISPs) to provide dial-up Internet access. Those ISPs have special pricing agreements with local landline operators and customers are charged less than the price of regular local calls when calling such dial-up access numbers.
Local directory assistance can be obtained by dialing 102, but the service is charged as a regular local call in most instances except from payphones. However, all local landline telephone companies offer on-line directory inquiries on their Web sites. Mobile lines are not available for inquiry, for privacy and security reasons.
Mobile telephony Mobile phone numbers in Brazil are assigned the same geographic area codes as fixed lines, according to the subscriber's place of residence or most frequent use. Until the inclusion of the ninth digit, mobile phone numbers start with the digits 6, 7, 8 or 9. These initial digits are known to the public, so one always knows beforehand if one is calling a fixed or a mobile line.
After replacing the landline numbers that started in 7 in 2001 (with 7 or 8-digits in Greater São Paulo and 7-digits in other regions), these numbers were initially reserved exclusively for radiophone use (iDEN technology), but soaring demand for new mobile numbers eventually forced unused number ranges starting with 7 to be released for general mobile use.
Historically, at the time mobile numbers had seven or eight digits, the higher ranges of the 9 initial digit (96–99) were originally assigned to the old state monopolies before the privatization of Brazil's telephony system, and later to their privatized direct successors. To create a competitive market, later the Brazilian government auctioned further mobile service licenses, filling the available number ranges backward – first with the lower ranges of 9 (91–95), then 8, and so on.
As a consequence, in the beginning 9 (today 99) was more commonly assigned to mobile operators that used older technologies such as AMPS (analog), TDMA and CDMA, while for some time 8 (today 98) was specifically reserved for all new GSM licenses. Now GSM is universally adopted by Brazilian mobile operators and, combined with number portability and the inclusion of a ninth digit to the left (see below), this distinction is no longer observed or meaningful.
Non-geographic prefixes 020, 060 and 070 (020n-nnn-nnnn, 060n-nnn-nnnn, 070n-nnn-nnnn) are reserved for future non-geographic mobile phone numbers.
Ninth digit for mobile numbers
Brazilian mobile phone numbers always have nine digits now, but seven digits were usual in the first years, then eight digits became the standard for several years. The last area code to convert fully from seven to eight digits was 61 (comprising the national capital city, Brasília, and neighbouring areas), in 2005.
However, the popularity of multiple-SIM mobile phones in Brazil makes the country have more active mobile lines than inhabitants (as of November 2016, 248 million vs. 206 million), and by 2010 the country's most populous and economically important area code, 11 of metropolitan São Paulo (an area where over 20 million people live), was getting close to exhausting its available mobile numbers. Overlays and extra area codes were considered, but deemed confusing and impractical for local conditions.
So, on 10 December 2010, ANATEL announced the inclusion of a ninth digit (in the format 9nnnn-nnnn) to mobile phone numbers used in the São Paulo metropolitan region (area code 11). This change was meant to increase the numbering capacity in metropolitan São Paulo from 44 million to 370 million, thereby eliminating the perennial shortage of available numbers in that area.
Telecom providers would have 24 months to implement the ability to dial a new digit to the left of all cell phone numbers of area code 11, but the measure ended up being implemented a few months ahead of that initial schedule, on 29 July 2012. On that date, the digit 9 was added to the left of all existing mobile numbers in the 11 area code, regardless of their former initial digits. So, for example, mobile number (11) 6010-2030 became (11) 96010-2030.
To standardize the mobile numbering plan in Brazil, ANATEL started gradually rolling out the change to nine digits in other area codes and states as well. The last three states to implement the ninth digit in mobile numbers (the Southern states of Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, corresponding to area codes 41 through 55) did so on 6 November 2016. Initial digits 6 through 8 remain reserved for mobile lines, but as of September 2020 all mobile numbers in Brazil still start with 9 after the ninth digit was added, and it was not yet necessary to use the other reserved initial digits.
Landline numbers (starting with 2, 3, 4 or 5) and trunked radio mobile telephony (iDEN) numbers were not changed and remained with eight digits. As iDEN numbers had the same format as the former 8-digit regular mobile numbers, and some old 8-digit standard mobile numbers also used the initial digit 7 of iDEN numbers, some confusion happened for some time, with people adding an initial 9 when calling iDEN numbers, which would not allow the call to be placed. This is no longer a problem, as iDEN service was discontinued on 31 May 2018. On that date, users who still had iDEN phones had to replace them with standard phones with GSM/3G/4G network support, and the number with one in 9-digit format.
Despite this fact, mobile phones registered outside the 11–19 (São Paulo), 21, 22, 24 (Rio de Janeiro) and 27–28 (Espírito Santo) areas are usually displayed on WhatsApp (widely used by Brazilians to send text, voice and video messages due to the privileged access granted by mobile operators, in contrast to the assumption of network neutrality present in the Marco Civil da Internet) with the old 8-digit number.
Public utility The format for public utility service phone numbers is 1nn. It includes all emergency (as well as some non-emergency) services, such as: 100: Human Rights Secretariat 112: Universal emergency number for all GSM phones (redirects to 190) 128: Standard emergency number in Mercosul (in Brazil, redirects to 190) 136: Ministry of Health hotline 147: Digital television transition hotline (2010–2023) 153: Municipal Guards 181: Anonymous crime reporting (some areas only, others may use different, more miscellaneous numbers) 188: Centro de Valorização da Vida (suicide prevention helpline) 190: Military Police 191: Federal Highway Police 192: Ambulance 193: Firefighters 194: Federal Police Department 197: Civil Police 198: State Highway Patrol 199: Civil Defense