International phone number max and min?

Question

What is the max and min digits for an international telephone number? (country code + area code + phone number)

Answer 1

Telephone numbers are standardised by ITU-T in their recommendation E.164. In the recommendation they say telephone numbers should not exceed 15 digits.

So it's up to the telephone operators and local standards.

Most operators don't allow you to send SMS messages to numbers which are more than 16 digits long. So you'll be safe with 16 digit limit.

Answer 2

The answer to that question can (and does) change in a fashion which is entirely too fluid to be able to provide you with a definitive answer. Carriers or countries can change their numbering plans (adding area codes or adding digits or the like) at any time.

A website which I often use as a reference for International Phone Numbers is http://www.numberingplans.com/

I believe they also sell their databases, if you are wanting to validate individual numbers within your own system..

Answer 3

, where the format of telephone numbers is standardized by ITU-T in the recommendation E.164, which specifies that the entire number should be 15 digits or shorter,

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_number

Also, check this other question on SO: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/723587/whats-the-longest-possible-worldwide-phone-number-i-should-consider-in-sql-varch