How to Change International Dialing Access Codes

• Microsoft Windows operating system versions 3.1, 3.11
• Microsoft Windows for Workgroups versions 3.1, 3.11

SUMMARY

Since the release of the Windows Telephony (TAPI) SDK for Windows 3.1 in November, 1993, there have been changes in the telephone dialing procedures used in several countries/regions. In addition, some countries/regions have changed country/region codes, new countries/regions have come into existence, and other changes have occurred. TAPI obtains information related to countries/regions and dialing rules from the [Countries] section of the Telephon.ini file in the Windows folder. You must update the Telephon.ini file in the Windows folder in order to use the most recent information available.

MORE INFORMATION

There is an entry in the [Countries] section of the Telephon.ini file for each country/region. For example, Singapore has the following entry:

   Country65=65,66,"Singapore","G","","001EFG"

• "Country65" identifies the entry in the country/region list. The "65" after the word "Country" is the country/region code ID (identifier), which must be unique in the list (and, for most countries/regions, is usually the same as the country/region code). For example, the "65" here is for Singapore. If you needed to change the access code for the United states, you would use "Country1."
• The "65" to the right of the equal sign is the country/region code for Singapore. "66" is the next number in the sequence of country/region codes. This second number may or may not be contiguous, but it must be correct.
• "Singapore" is the country/region name in this example.
• "G" is the local dialing rules. This indicates that local dialing requires only the local number.
• "" represents the long distance dialing rules. In Singapore, there are no long distance calls; therefore, there are no dialing rules for long distance. In the United States, this would be "1FG" indicating a 1, the area code, and a local number.
• "001EFG" represents the dialing rules for international dialing. 001 is the international dialing access number for the country/region. "EFG" represents the country/region code, area code, and local number for the number being dialed.

To update your Telephon.ini file to contain the latest country/region information and dialing rules, follow these steps:

1. Create a backup copy of the Telephon.ini file by copying it to another name (such as Telephon.sav).

2. Use any text editor (such as Notepad) to open the Telephon.ini file in the Windows folder.

3. Delete the [Countries] section of the file, including the [Countries] header and all the "Country" lines below it.

4. Insert the following [Countries] section into the Telephon.ini file and then save and close the file:

 "G","0FG","99EFG"

NOTE: Each "Country<n>..." statement should be on one line. For example, "Country389..." is on two lines above due to a lack of space. Please remove the extra carriage return when you replace your [Countries] section.

For information about changing the international access codes in Windows 95, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q142328
   TITLE     : Windows 95 - How to Change International Dialing Access
               Codes