The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has established a comprehensive

numbering plan, designated E.164, for uniform interoperability of the networks of its
member state or regional administrations. It is an open numbering plan, however,
imposing a maximum length of 15 digits to telephone numbers. The standard defines
acountry calling code (country code) for each state or region which is prefixed to each
national numbering plan telephone number for international destination routing.
Private numbering plans exist in telephone networks that are privately operated in an
enterprise or organizational campus. Such systems may be supported by a private branch
exchange (PBX) which controls internal communications between telephone extensions.
In contrast to numbering plans, which determine telephone numbers assigned to
subscriber stations, a dial plan establishes the customer dialing procedures, i.e. the
sequence of digits users are required to dial to reach a destination. Even in closed
numbering plans, it is not always