Area codes in the Caribbean


From 1958 to about 1995, most of the British West Indies in the Caribbean Basin, Bermuda, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico shared a single area code 809 in the North American Numbering Plan. By the mid-1990s, with the proliferation of fax machines, mobile phones, computers, and pagers in the region, the 809 area code was almost exhausted. New area codes were added, and since 1999 no two territories share a code. 809 is now used only in the Dominican Republic.

Assignments

territoryarea code
Anguilla264
Antigua and Barbuda268
The Bahamas242
Barbados246
Bermuda441
The British Virgin Islands284
The Cayman Islands345
The Commonwealth of Dominica767
The Dominican Republic809, 829, 849
Grenada473
Jamaica876, 658
Montserrat664
Puerto Rico787, 939
Saint Kitts and Nevis869
Saint Lucia758
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines784
Sint Maarten721
Trinidad and Tobago868
The Turks and Caicos Islands649
The U.S. Virgin Islands340

Of the above territories, the only one that was outside the NANP in 1995 was Sint Maarten, part of the Netherlands Antilles until dissolution in 2010 and now 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 809

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 10 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

Numbering prefixRemaining digit quantityCountry
29fiveBermuda
3sevenThe Bahamas
4sevenBarbados
44fiveThe Commonwealth of Dominica
44fiveGrenada
45fiveSaint Lucia
45fiveSaint Vincent
46fiveAntigua and Barbuda
465fourSaint Kitts
469fourNevis
491fourMontserrat
497fourAnguilla
49fiveBritish Virgin Islands
5sevenThe Dominican Republic
68sevenThe Dominican Republic
6sevenTrinidad and Tobago
77sevenThe U.S. Virgin Islands
7sevenPuerto Rico
8sevenPuerto Rico
946fourThe Turks and Caicos Islands
94fiveThe Cayman Islands
9sevenJamaica

In chart above, digits in italics were just the initial digit of seven-digit number dialing.
Sint Maarten was part of +599 until long after 809 was totally divided into individual area codes.
Source for above info: Incumbent provider Cable and Wireless Telephone-directory from Barbados of 1994-1995.

Other territories

Not all of the Caribbean islands are in the North American Numbering Plan; the following have country codes.
territorycode
Aruba+297
Haiti+509
Cuba+53
Guadeloupe+590
Saint Barthélemy+590
Saint Martin+590
Martinique+596
Caribbean Netherlands+599
Curaçao+599