Unable to Dial Alternate Provider Numbers in France

When you attempt to dial a number in France that is served by a telecommunications provider other than France Telecom (provider number 0), you may be unable to connect to the number. An incorrect number may be dialed.

For example, dialing a number from a location in France may yield the following results:


Dialing the number from a country outside of France (for example, from the United States) may yield results similar to the following:

The Windows 98 telephony dialing rules cannot properly account for the variations in dialing rules caused by the way that multiple telecommunications providers are implemented in France. This is a limitation of the Windows 98 telephony architecture, exposed by the unique way in which the French telecommunication system is implemented.

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

You may be able to work around this issue by using one of the following methods:

Method 1

This method permits correct dialing of the number both from within France and from other countries.

You can click to clear the "Use country code and area code" check box in the properties for the dial-up connection to make Windows dial the number you enter in the Phone Number box exactly as you enter it. Dialing properties (such as call waiting and outside line access numbers) are not applied.

For example, click Modify beside the Phone Number box, and then click to clear the "Use country code and area code" check box. Then, type the entire sequence of numbers needed to dial the number in the Phone Number box.

When you use this method you must enter every digit that is to be dialed in the Phone Number box. The digits are not automatically adapted as you change locations, but you have complete control over the number that is dialed.

You can use this method with HyperTerminal, Dial-Up Networking, The Microsoft Network, and any other telephony program that provides this feature. This feature is provided so that the telephony dialing rules can be manually overridden, to accommodate any exceptions that may occur with any fixed set of rules.

Method 2

If you are calling from within the country of France, you can change the default dialing rules to allow automatic dialing of the correct number. This may be useful if your dialing program does not provide the ability to override the use of Telephony dialing rules.

1. Obtain and install the update described in the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
   
   217189  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/217189/EN-US/ ) Cannot Change TAPI Dialing Rules in Windows 98
   Be sure to restart your computer after installing this update, or the following steps may not work the first time.
2. Edit the properties for the dial-up connection you are attempting to make. Make sure that the Provider and Region codes (two digits total) are entered in the Area Code box, and the remaining eight digits of the number are entered in the Phone Number box.
3. Change the telephony dialing rules for France, which are stored in the Windows 98 registry. Using Registry Editor (Regedit.exe), locate the following key in the registry:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Telephony\Country List\33
   This key contains the dialing rules for France. You can confirm that this is the correct key by verifying that the data for the "Name" value is "France." Change the data for the following values to the strings indicated:
   
   
   Collapse this tableExpand this table

   Value name	Original data	New data
   LongDistanceRule	0FG	FG
   SameAreaRule	0FG	FG

Once these steps are completed, try to connect to the number, and observe whether the actual number dialed is the correct number (no leading 0) and whether the connection is successful. If the correct number is not dialed, shut down and restart your computer, repeat steps 2-3, and test again.

NOTE: This method works only when you are dialing the number from within France. To correctly dial the number from another country, use either method 1 or method 3.

When you use this method, you are unable to dial any number in France from another country. Dialing a number in France from a country outside of France (for example, from the United States) yields results similar to the following:


In the case of a number served by the France Telecom provider, the original dialing rules permit a successful connection, while the modified rules do not. In the case of a number served by a provider other than France Telecom, both the original and modified rules produce an incorrect result.

Method 3

If you are calling from outside France, you can modify the number itself to permit dialing of the correct number. This may be useful if your dialing program does not provide the ability to override the use of telephony dialing rules.

Edit the properties for the dial-up connection you are attempting to make, and delete the Provider number (the first of two digits) from the Area Code box. The Area Code box should contain only the Region number, and the remaining eight digits of the number should be entered in the Phone Number box.

NOTE: This method works only when you are dialing the number from outside of France. To correctly dial the number from within France, use either method 1 or method 2. If you use this method to dial the number from outside of France, and then later travel to France with your computer, you must use either method 1 or method 2 to correctly dial the number.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

French phone numbers consist of 10 digits:
10-digit dialing is in effect throughout France, for both local and long distance calls.

The first two digits are typically combined and treated as an Area Code for Telephony Application Programming Interface (TAPI) dialing purposes.

France Telecom, the default telecom provider in France, has a provider code of "0." Therefore, most French telephone numbers begin with 0 (for example, 01 23 45 67 89).

However, other providers are available, with different provider numbers. For example, CEGETEL's provider code is "7," so its subscribers' numbers begin with 7 (for example, 71 23 45 67 89).

Current TAPI dialing rules for France force an initial "0," preventing users from calling non-France Telecom numbers. Because 10-digit dialing is in effect for all calls (local and long distance), this affects all calling in France.