People often mix up the two numbers at the front of a phone number. They do different jobs.
Contents
The country code comes first
The country code sends your call to the right nation — 1, 44, 34. You only dial it when calling from abroad, after your exit prefix or the + sign.
The area code comes next
Inside a country, the area code points to a city or region: 212 for New York, 20 for London, 91 for Barcelona. When you call from abroad you keep the area code but drop its leading zero.
A worked example
A Barcelona landline is 93 123 45 67 nationally. From abroad it becomes +34 93 123 45 67: country code 34, then the area code 93 (no zero to drop here), then the number. Mobiles usually have no area code — the whole number follows the country code directly.
