Unknown calls from Bangladesh
Bangladesh runs on mobile financial services: bKash, Nagad and Rocket accounts are tied to phone numbers, so the phone itself has become a target. A typical suspicious call claims money was sent to you by mistake, or that an agent needs a PIN to fix your account. Others promise overseas jobs, scholarships or lottery winnings, a pitch aimed partly at families with relatives working abroad. Calls from Gulf countries and Malaysia are routine for many households, which makes unknown international numbers hard to judge. Checking a number first helps separate a genuine relative or employer from a caller fishing for wallet codes.
Bangladesh phone numbers at a glance
- Country calling code
- +880
- Trunk prefix
- 0
- Number format
- Mobile numbers have 11 digits nationally in the format 01X XXXX XXXX; the third digit identifies the issuing operator. Dhaka landlines begin 02.
- Example (national)
- 01712 345678
- Example (international)
- +880 1712 345678
- Emergency number
- 999 (police, fire and ambulance)
- Telecom regulator
- Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC)
To call a Bangladeshi number from abroad, drop the leading 0 and dial +880 first: 01712 345678 becomes +880 1712 345678. A missed call showing +880 at the start came from a Bangladesh number.
How to tell what kind of Bangladeshi number called you
Mobile numbers
| Type | Starts with | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Grameenphone | 013 / 017 | Ranges issued by Grameenphone, the largest operator. |
| Robi | 016 / 018 | Robi ranges; 016 numbers were originally issued by Airtel Bangladesh, which merged with Robi. |
| Banglalink | 014 / 019 | Ranges issued by Banglalink. |
| Teletalk | 015 | Range of the state-owned operator Teletalk. |
Toll-free, premium and special numbers
| Type | Starts with | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Short hotline numbers | 16 | Five-digit 16XXX hotlines used by banks, mobile wallets and service companies (bKash, for example, uses 16247). |
| Government information line | 333 | National helpline for government information and services. |
| IP telephony | 09 | Numbers issued by IP telephony service providers, often used by businesses and call centres. |
Mobile networks in Bangladesh
Numbers can be ported between networks, so the prefix alone does not prove which carrier a number is on today. A WhoCallsMe lookup reads the current carrier of record. The main mobile operators are:
- Grameenphone
- Robi
- Banglalink
- Teletalk