Article summary
The Southern and Antarctic Lands of France (TAAF) do not have an independent area code and actually use 262. This article clearly explains the international/local format, number length, Excel E 11, duplicate numbers, and standardized cleaning process, with Before/After examples included.
Quick Conclusion: Key Rules for Number 262
The Southern and Antarctic Lands of France (TAAF) do not have an independent international dialing code and actually use the numbering system of French overseas territories.+262(Shared with Réunion and Mayotte). The international format is262 followed by 9 digits, such as+262 692 12 34 56; The local format is10 digits starting with 0, such as0692 12 34 56Within TAAF, there are only research stations and no civilian mobile networks, so there is no independent TAAF phone number range — the numbers marked as TF in the data table are mostly Réunion numbers or input errors.
First clarify: TAAF does not have its own mobile number range
The French Southern and Antarctic Lands (Terres australes et antarctiques françaises) include the Kerguelen Islands, the Crozet Islands, Amsterdam Island and Saint-Paul Island, and Adélie Land, with no permanent residents, only rotating scientific personnel. Research stations such as Port-aux-Français on Kerguelen, Dumont d’Urville in Adélie Land, Alfred-Faure on Crozet, and Martin-de-Viviès on Amsterdam primarily rely on satellite links for external communications.
This means three things for data cleaning:
- “The ‘TAAF Independent Mobile Number Segment’ does not exist;”
- The 262 numbers with the country label TAAF/TF in the data should be treated as Reunion (or Mayotte) numbers;
- Satellite phones use dedicated segments like Iridium, Inmarsat, Thuraya (e.g., starting with 870, 881, 882, 883), and do not belong to the 262 geographic number system, so they should be classified separately during cleaning.
Which areas have the area code 262?
262 is allocated to the French overseas territories in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) numbering plan, managed uniformly by the French numbering plan, and mainly covers:
- Réunion (La Réunion)
- Mayotte
- In practice, it includes southern France and Antarctic territories
Before cleaning number 262, first distinguish the internal number segments:
| Region | Type | Local format (10 digits) | International format (262 9 digits) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Réunion | Landline | 0262 XX XX XX | +262 262 XX XX XX |
| Réunion | Mobile phone | 0690 / 0692 / 0693 XX XX XX | +262 690 / 692 / 693 XX XX XX |
| Mayotte | Landline | 0269 XX XX XX | +262 269 XX XX XX |
| Mayotte | Mobile phone | 0639 XX XX XX | +262 639 XX XX XX |
| Southern France and Antarctic territories | — | No public number segment | Not applicable |
Carrier number segments will be adjusted with the issuance of licenses. Before the official project, it is recommended to verify them against the latest numbering plan released by ARCEP (the French Electronic Communications Regulatory Authority).
Comparison between International Format and Local Format
| writing method | Example | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| E.164 (recommended storage) | +262692123456 | Database, CRM, API integration |
| Readable international formats | +262 692 12 34 56 | Page display, paper materials |
| Local format | 0692 12 34 56 | Call directly locally |
| 00 International prefix | 00262 692 12 34 56 | Dialed out from countries using the 00 prefix (including China and mainland France) |
Two hard rules:
- Local dialing keeps the leading 0; when writing in international format, the leading 0 must be removed.
00Give me+Equivalent, but before storage, all are converted to the same amount+Otherwise, the same number will appear00262...And+262...These two types directly affect deduplication.
Phone number length and precedence 0
262 Number length determination:
- Complete E.164 form:
+3 digits of country code, 9 user numbers, total of 13 characters; - Go
+Post-plain digit 12 digits:2629 people; - Local form 10 bits:
09 people; - 9 digits of the user number
6= Mobile phone (6xx), first place2= Landline.
Three typical illegal writing methods:
+2620 692 12 34 56: International format still retains the leading zero, which becomes 10 bits, which is invalid;692 12 34 56:9 characters but no country code, making it impossible to confirm ownership;262 692 12 34 56: Lacking+Or00, which may be recognized by the system as the domestic number of another country.
How to handle spaces, brackets, blanks, and dots
Manually entered numbers often use separators:
| Original input | Contains distracting characters |
|---|---|
0692 12 34 56 | Space |
0692-12-34-56 | Horizontal line |
06.92.12.34.56 | dot (common European spelling) |
+262 (692) 12 34 56 | Parentheses and spaces |
+262-692-123-456 | Horizontal line |
There is only one cleaning rule:Only the numbers and the beginnings are kept+, remove spaces, brackets, lines, dots, and slashes;00Replace the beginning with+； Then check according to the length rule.
Excel E 11 Scientific Notation problems
By default, in Excel’s “Normal” format, pure numbers larger than 11 digits are displayed using scientific notation. 12 digits262692123456It will display as2.62692E+11, manually entered+The number will be discarded; If the number exceeds 15 digits, Excel will actually rewrite the last digit to 0, and the original number cannot be restored.
| Input | Excel display | Consequences |
|---|---|---|
262692123456 | 2.62692E+11 | Display abnormality, number missing |
+262692123456 | 2.62692E+11 | and was called ‘devoured.’ |
0692123456 | 692123456 | The leading zero disappears, becoming 9 bits |
Solution:
- Set the number list to ‘text’ format before importing;
- When entering manually, put English single quotation marks at the beginning, for example
'262692123456； - Displayed as E 11 data
=TEXT(A1,"0")Restores the display, but the last digit rewritten by Excel cannot be recovered, so the original CSV can only be reverted; - For batch scenarios, it is recommended to directly operate the CSV source file, enclosing the numbers in quotes to bypass Excel’s automatic conversion.
Duplicate numbers: standardize first, then deduplicate
The following four records are actually the same number:
0692 12 34 56+26269212345600262 692 12 34 5606.92.12.34.56
If you deduplicate directly by the original string, duplicate data will be missed. The correct order is:First, standardize everything to E.164(+262692123456), then complete the total number and remove duplicates。 Any practice based on ‘country fuzzy matching’ is prone to accidental deletion and is not recommended.
Checking for incorrect country codes
Common incorrect area codes in data labeled as “Southern France and Antarctic Lands”:
| Area code | Actual ownership | Confusing the cause |
|---|---|---|
| +269 | Comoros | Just one spot behind 262 |
| +261 | Madagascar | Geographical proximity, resulting in confusion with entry |
| +230 | Mauritius | Both are island nations in the Indian Ocean |
| +33 | Mainland France | Both belong to France, but the label is mislabeled |
| Section 262 639 | Mayotte | Shares 262 with TAAF, label mislabeled |
Inspection principles:Use the actual area code of the number as the standard; do not trust the country name columns in the data table。 The tag says TF, but the area code is 269, so the entry is assigned to Comoros for further processing.
Standardized Cleaning Process (Before / After)
Complete processing logic:
- Remove all non-numeric characters line by line, keeping the beginning
+(If any); 00The string of numbers at the beginning:00Replace with+；- Split by length:
- 10 digits and so on
0Start → remove the preceding zero, prefix supplement+262； - 9 Digits for now
6Or2The beginning → is a prefix complement+262； - 12 digits and thus
262The beginning → is a prefix complement+； +262Starting with 9 bits followed by → passes;- Other morphologies → Abnormal markings, manual verification;
- Classified by license plate range:
6xxMobile phones,62xRené Wangu said,639Mayotte mobile phones,269Mayotte Fixed; - The national label was uniformly rewritten as follows
262 (Réunion/Mayotte System), do not continue using TAAF tags; - Deduplication based on standardized complete numbers;
- When exporting to CSV, the numbered column should be quoted in text format.
Before / After example:
| Raw Data (Dirty) | Problem | Standardized results |
|---|---|---|
0692 12 34 56 | Space Precedence 0 | +262692123456 |
+262（692）12-34-56 | Parentheses and horizontal lines | +262692123456 |
00262 692.12.34.56 | 00 dot mark | +262692123456 |
262692123456 | Missing+ | +262692123456 |
+2620692123456 | International format with preceding 0 | Mark as abnormal |
+262639123456 | It is actually a Mayotte number | +262639123456(Tag rewrite) |
2.62692E+11 | Excel accuracy is damaged | Cannot be restored; the original file must be restored |
A list of common mistakes
- Treat TAAF as an independent number segment: handle cleaning with 262;
- International format retention preview 0:
+2620...All are illegal; - Deduplicate before standardization: duplicate numbers are omitted and deleted;
- Country only, not area code: 269 / 262 Discrimination failure;
- Satellite number mixing: segments 870 / 881 / 882 / 883 are classified separately;
- Bit check missing: After 262, there must be 9 digits; both one more and one bit less must be marked.
Batch processing of 262 numbers
Numbers with over several thousand are not recommended to be cleaned manually; you can import files directlyAppShai platformFirst, standardization, deduplication, and area code recognition are completed, then steps such as enabling filtering and active filtering are added as needed for business needs. AppShai Number processing covers 220 countries and regions; under the 262 system, Réunion and Mayotte number ranges can be directly identified. A small number of numbers can be manually processed in Excel or scripts according to the workflow in this article; After large data volumes and mixed sources, unified cleaning with the platform results in a significant difference in efficiency.
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