Area Code 452 – Colonia del Scaramento

Overview of Area Code 452 (Colonia del Sacramento)

Area code 452 is a geographic National Destination Code (NDC) within the Uruguayan national numbering plan, governed by ITU-T E.164 and administered by the state-owned telecommunications operator, ANTEL (Administración Nacional de Telecomunicaciones). This code serves the historic city of Colonia del Sacramento, the capital of the Colonia Department, located in southwestern Uruguay along the Río de la Plata estuary. The city is renowned for its well-preserved Portuguese and Spanish colonial architecture, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is a major tourist destination.

The geographic area covered by code 452 extends beyond the city limits to include surrounding localities such as Real de San Carlos, Puerto Platero, and rural zones within the Colonia Department. However, it is distinct from other departmental codes like 455 (Carmelo) or 456 (Nueva Helvecia), which serve different parts of the same department.

Dialing Formats and Procedures

For domestic calls within Uruguay, the national trunk prefix is 0, followed by the area code and the subscriber number. The subscriber number for Colonia del Sacramento consists of 4 digits, making the complete national significant number (NSN) 8 digits (excluding the trunk prefix). Thus, a local call from Montevideo to Colonia would be dialed as:

• 0 452 XXXX (where XXXX is the 4-digit subscriber number)

For international callers, the Uruguayan country code is +598. The international format omits the trunk prefix '0' and is dialed as:

• +598 452 XXXX

For example, a landline in Colonia with subscriber number 1234 would be dialed as +598 452 1234 from abroad. When calling within the same area code, local calls may be made using only the 4-digit subscriber number, depending on the operator's local dialing rules.

Technical and Regulatory Considerations

Area code 452 is classified as a geographic code, meaning it is tied to a physical location. This has implications for number portability: while Uruguay implemented mobile number portability (MNP) in 2010, fixed-line numbers are generally not portable between geographic areas. Calls to 452 numbers are routed over the PSTN and are also accessible via VoIP services, but the geographic association remains for emergency services (like 911) and for determining local call rates.

For businesses and residents, the code ensures that callers can identify the origin of a call. As of the latest ITU-T recommendations, Uruguay has not introduced overlay codes for Colonia, so 452 remains the sole geographic code for the area. The country's numbering plan is closed, and all numbers are 8 digits long when dialed nationally (including the area code but excluding the trunk prefix).