> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://omni.fireflo.au/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Countries

> The one country directory every channel reads a number's country from: number prefixes, trying a number, switching a country off, and exporting or importing the list.

**Platform → Countries** is one list of countries for SMS, WhatsApp, RCS and Voice. Each
channel finds a number's country here: for its prices, its reports and the
[allowed countries](https://omni.fireflo.au/operators/customers.md#sending) of each account. For SMS, the prefixes
are also what the gateway matches when it prices a message.

**Who can use it:** platform staff. **Countries** on the Pricing page leads here too.

## How a number's country is found

Each country has **number prefixes**: usually just its calling code. A number belongs to
the country with the **longest prefix** it starts with. A leading "+" or "00" is ignored,
so `+14165550123`, `14165550123` and `0014165550123` all read the same.

That is how countries that share a calling code are told apart. Canada's area codes are
prefixes of their own, so a number starting `1416` is Canada, and any other `+1` number
no other country claims is the United States. The two can then have prices of their own.

A country that shares a calling code but has no prefixes of its own reads as the main
country for that code until you give it some.

## The directory

Each row shows the **Country**, its **Calling code**, its **Number prefixes** and its
**Status**:

| Status | Meaning |
| :- | :- |
| **On** | As the standard list has it. |
| **Changed** | Staff changed its prefixes, name or switch. |
| **Off · nobody can send** | Switched off. No account can send there, on any channel. |

Search with **Find a country, IN, 91 or +91**, and narrow the list to **Changed from the
standard list** or **Switched off**.

## Try a number

Type a number in **Try a number** and select **Read it**. The answer names the country it
was read as and the prefix that decided it, and confirms the same answer with "+",
without it and with "00". Use it before and after editing prefixes.

## Edit a country

Select **Edit** on a country's row.

* **Number prefixes**: digits only, with or without "+", separated by commas, spaces or
  new lines. Leave the calling code alone to treat all of that code as one country. A
  prefix can belong to one country only: one already used by another is refused, with
  the country that has it.
* **On: accounts may send here when their allowed countries include it**: untick it to
  switch the country off for everyone.
* **Back to the standard list** undoes your changes to that country.

Select **Save**, or **Cancel** to leave it as it was.

What saving does:

* WhatsApp, RCS and Voice use the new prefixes at once.
* For SMS, the prefixes become the gateway's rules for every account priced in that
  country. Those accounts join
  [Waiting to apply](https://omni.fireflo.au/operators/pricing.md#apply-sms-prices-to-the-gateway) on the Pricing
  page. The gateway isn't changed until staff apply.

> [!WARNING]
>
> Prefixes decide which country, and so which price, a number gets. Giving a country
> prefixes inside a shared calling code splits it from the main country: its numbers then
> take its own prices, and its own place in each account's allowed countries.

## Export and import

**Export** downloads the whole directory as a CSV with the columns `iso`, `name`,
`calling_code`, `prefixes` (separated by spaces) and `active` (`yes` or `no`).

**Import** reads a file in the same shape and shows which countries it would change and
which rows it refuses, and why. Nothing is saved until you select **Save N countries**.
A row whose country isn't in the directory, or whose prefix belongs to another country, is
refused. A file can hold up to 1,000 rows.

## When you upgrade

The directory is filled from a standard list of the world's numbering plans when you
upgrade to the release that brought it. See
[Upgrade to a new release](https://omni.fireflo.au/operators/installing.md#upgrade-to-a-new-release). Running the
setup again adds countries the directory lacks and never changes a country staff edited.


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