Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
DIALING IN TO THE TELEPHONE NETWORK
Even Bolivians struggle with their own telephone network. Here's a quick kit to get you dialing.
Numbers
Líneas fijas
(landlines) have seven digits; cellular numbers have eight digits. Numerous telecommunic-
ations carriers include, among others, Entel, Cotel, Tigo, Bolivia- tel and Viva. Each carrier has an individual code
between
010 and
021.
Area codes
Each department (region) has its own single-digit area code, which must be used when dialing from
another region or to another city, regardless of whether it's the same area code as the one you're in. The depart-
ment codes are:
2 La Paz, Oruro, Potosí;
3 Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando;
4 Cochabamba, Chuquisaca,
Tarija.
Public phones
Dialing landlines from public phone booths is easy; ask the cashier for advice.
Placing calls
To make a call to another landline within the same city, simply dial the seven-digit number. If you're
calling another region, dial 0 plus the single-digit area code followed by the seven-digit number, eg
02-123-4567. If calling a cell phone, ask the cashier for instructions; most
puntos
have different phones for calls
to cellulars and landlines, so you may have to swap cabins if calling both.
Cellular phones
Cellular-to-cellular calls within the same city are simple - just dial the eight-digit number. A re-
corded message (in Spanish) may prompt you for a carrier number, indicating that the person is either not within
the same city or region or has a SIM card from another region, in which case you must then redial using a
0
plus the two-digit carrier number plus the eight-digit cellular number. For cellular-to-landline calls within the
same city, in most cases, you must dial the single-digit area code, and then the seven-digit number. For cellular-to-
landline calls to another region, in most cases, you must dial a 0 plus the two-digit carrier code, followed by
the single-digit area code, and then the seven-digit number. For example, if dialing Sucre from La Paz, dial
0
then
10 (or any one of the carrier codes -
10 is Entel's network carrier) then
4 (Sucre's area code)
then the seven-digit number.
International calls
For international calls, you must first dial
00 followed by a country code, area code
(without the first zero) and the telephone number.
Phone Codes
In this topic, when the given phone number is in another city or town (eg some rural ho-
tels have La Paz reservation numbers), the single-digit telephone code is provided along
with the number.
International Calls
Bolivia's country code is 591. The international direct-dialing access code is 00.
Calls from telephone offices are getting cheaper all the time, especially now that there's
competition between the carriers - they can vary between B$1.50 and B$8 per minute.
