Gone is that time when there were only landlines. Now certain operators do not even offer a fixed telephone line in their rates, since their use is being lost more and more since mobiles came into our lives. Little by little, landlines have been disappearing in a large part of Spanish homes, although in some they continue to be maintained, and the elderly continue to find them useful. If these days you have received a call from a number that begins with 8 and you have been surprised or have thought that it may be one of the innumerable scams that currently circulate, we clear your doubts.
If you have ever received a call that begins with 8 and you have not answered for fear that it is a call from another country or a false telephone number, do not panic. All Spanish provinces have fixed numbers with 9 digits. There are those who know by heart the prefix of part or all of the Spanish provinces and others who are completely unaware of this information. It is becoming more and more common for numbers to run out and for a few years it has been normal for them to call us from a provincial number that starts with 8.
15 communities launch prefixes that start with 8
In Alicante, Almería, Cádiz, Cantabria, Ciudad Real, Huelva, Jaén, Lleida, Lugo, Madrid, Málaga, Navarra, Salamanca, Seville and Valencia, a new prefix has arrived that begins with 8.
The new provincial prefixes entered into force when the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures (SETID) approved and published the corresponding resolution in the BOE. From that moment on, the new numbering is available to operators who request it from the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC).
85% of landlines are busy
Currently, 85% of all fixed numbers beginning with 9 are occupied, since numbering is a limited resource . That is why the Government is in charge of drawing up the National Numbering Plan and modifies it when necessary. “Each service establishes that a series of certain ranges must be used. For geographical numbering, they are the ranges whose first digit is 8 or 9 and the second digit is different from 0”.
Thus, for example, in Madrid the geographic numbers can start with 8 with the prefix 815, in Valencia (860), Salamanca (823), Lugo (882), Alicante (865), Almería (850), Ciudad Real (848) , Cantabria (842), Navarra (848), Seville (854), Huelva (859), Jaén (853), Cádiz (856), Ciudad Real (826) and Málaga (851).
Therefore, the next time you receive a call from a number that begins with 8, it will surely be a call from a landline number from one of these provinces, so there is nothing to fear and you can answer the call normally.