Re: [WAI-IG] Date & number format

> Same thing about someone's earlier comment on requiring the + on phone
> numbers. In the US we don't use + so for many, if not most people it
> wouldn't register what they are being asked to provide.

I'm afraid it is a common observation from outside the USA that you
don't admit to the existence of the rest of the world.  I don't think
that many people outside the USA know the international access prefix
from the USA, so, if US businesses don't understand +, they will have
problems contacting overseas customers, who will publish international
numbers with a +, not with the US outgoing international code (the most
common international access code outside the USA is 00, although the UK
used to use 010 - I don't think the US uses 00, but I might be wrong).
(The fact that the default long distance carrier access code within the
USA is the same as the USA's country code adds to the confusion.)

The only time that people in the UK use + explicitly is with GSM phones.
Using it allows them, for example, to work internationally from the USA
and Europe without having to reprogram all the numbers with a different
international access code.

Even if you understand +, you unfortunately also need to understand that
UK businesses don't follow the guidelines and, typically, add (0) after
their own country code.

Received on Saturday, 6 December 2003 03:38:57 UTC