Sending a fax to the UK from the United States is fairly straightforward. If you are using a traditional facsimile machine, just enter the number as follows:
011 – [44] – [fax number in the UK]
The United Kingdom (UK) is comprised of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales. The country code for all four of these countries is ( 44 ).
How to Send a Fax to London
The area code for London is ( 20 ). To send a fax to London from the U.S., enter this dialing string:
011 – 44 – 20 – [fax number in London]
See what to dial if faxing the UK from somewhere else other than the United States.
Tips for Sending a Fax to the UK:
- Drop the first 0 in the number for the UK city dialing code. For example, the city code for London is “020” but you’ll drop the leading 0 when dialing from another country.
- Expect 2 – 5 digit area codes
- Phone number are between 4 and 8 digits. In most cases area code and number usually total 10 digits.
Be sure to prefix everything with a “9” if you normally do to access a line outside of your company’s phone network.
It may be necessary to add a pause in your dialing sequence after the “011” to allow the phone network time to connect you to an exchange. This depends on the model and brand of machine, but may be a comma or “#” sign inserted into the number. Dialing with the speaker enabled will allow you to hear what is going on during the call before the connection.
If you have trouble connecting, you may have to lower the baud rate on your machine to ensure a noise free transmission — try 9600 baud rather than the default.
Sending a fax to the UK can be expensive, if you do it often it would be best to use an international phone card or an internet faxing service.
Sample Area Codes in the UK:
Aberdeen | 1224 | Huddersfield | 1484 | Preston | 1772 |
Basildon | 1268 | Ipswich | 1473 | Reading | 118 |
Belfast | 28 | Kettering | 1536 | Ripon | 1765 |
Birmingham | 121 | Leeds | 113 | Rotherham | 1709 |
Blackburn | 1254 | Leicester | 116 | Salisbury | 1722 |
Blackpool | 1253 | Liverpool | 151 | Sheffield | 114 |
Bolton | 1204 | London | 20 | Slough | 1753 |
Bournemouth | 1202 | Luton | 1582 | Southampton | 23 |
Bradford | 1274 | Manchester | 161 | Southend-on-Sea | 1702 |
Brighton | 1273 | Middlesbrough | 1642 | St. Helens | 1744 |
Bristol | 117 | Newcastle | 191 | Stoke-on-Trent | 1782 |
Cambridge | 1223 | Newport | 1633 | Sunderland | 191 |
Cardiff | 29 | Northampton | 1604 | Swansea | 1792 |
Colchester | 1206 | Norwich | 1603 | Swindon | 1793 |
Coventry | 24 | Nottingham | 115 | Watford | 1923 |
Derby | 1332 | Oakham | 1572 | Wincester | 1962 |
Dundee | 1382 | Oxford | 1865 | Wolverhampton | 1902 |
Edinburgh | 131 | Peterborough | 1733 | Worcester | 1905 |
Glasgow | 141 | Plymouth | 1752 | Wormbridge | 1981 |
Gloucester | 1452 | Portsmouth | 23 | York | 1904 |
International Fax Choices
Another option for how to fax the UK is to sign up for an email-to-fax service such as iFax. These services allow you to send unlimited international faxes simply through your regular email for cheaper than a single long distance phone call to England or the UK.