Area Code 5 – Phuentsholing
The phone area code for Phuentsholing is 5 (international format +9755). Browse local exchange codes (NXX) and carrier assignments below.
📍 Geographic Location of Phuentsholing
Overview
The country calling code +975 is assigned to the Kingdom of Bhutan under the ITU-T E.164 international numbering plan. Within Bhutan, the national significant number (NSN) is eight digits long, comprising a one-digit national destination code (NDC) followed by a seven-digit subscriber number. The NDC '5' is a geographic code allocated to the Phuentsholing area, a major commercial town located in the southern part of Bhutan, bordering the Indian state of West Bengal. Phuentsholing serves as Bhutan's primary gateway for trade and transit, hosting the country's main customs office and the border crossing at Jaigaon.
Geographic Coverage
The '5' prefix covers Phuentsholing and its surrounding administrative areas within the Chukha District. This includes the town itself and nearby localities that rely on the Phuentsholing telephone exchange. As a geographic code, it is tied to the PSTN infrastructure serving this region, although calls to these numbers may be routed over both traditional copper lines and modern fiber-optic networks.
Dialing Formats
Understanding the correct dialing sequence is essential for both domestic and international callers.
- Domestic calls (within Bhutan): Dial the NDC and subscriber number without any trunk prefix. For example, to call a landline in Phuentsholing with the subscriber number 2345678, dial: 5 2345678.
- International calls from abroad: Dial the international access prefix (00 or +), then the country code 975, followed by the NDC and subscriber number. For the same number, dial: +975 5 2345678.
Note that when dialing from a mobile phone, the plus sign (+) replaces the international access code, making the format +975 5 2345678.
Important Considerations
Bhutan does not use trunk prefixes like '0' that are common in many other countries. Therefore, the national significant number always begins directly with the NDC. There are no overlay codes currently in effect for Phuentsholing; the '5' prefix is unique to this geographic area. However, as Bhutan's telecommunications infrastructure evolves, some numbers within this range may be assigned to VoIP services, but they remain geographically associated for numbering purposes.
For callers from India, the border town of Jaigaon, which is adjacent to Phuentsholing, requires international dialing procedures, as it is in a different country. Always use the +975 country code when calling Bhutanese numbers from any foreign location.
When storing Bhutanese numbers in international format, it is recommended to use the plus sign and omit any leading zeros. For example, store the number as +97552345678 for seamless dialing from any device.