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Telephone number
Imagine you get in Germany a telephone number on a pad. It is written as
Then of course you dial immediately 00 49 227 34595217, but there is no connection.
Explanation
Is there perhaps an error in the number? No, there's more to it. The number is correct, and reads
What?
That is something quite different. The 00 stands forr 'leave the present country' what you can indicate with a + internationaly. In some countries you choose this with 000 or 009. That you never know for sure. The number 49 means 'go to Germany'. The zero in parentheses (0) is only required when you are calling from within Germany, and you are not yet in the city itself, or you care using a mobile phone. The 221 stand for 'go to the area code' of Cologne (Köln). The dash should clarify this, but you don't need it. Then follows 345952, you omit the slash, because with 1 you get the central exchange of the company. Instead of 1, you can also directly enter the extension number if you know that.
You are expected to know all that. The correct number is
and that you can dial, wherever in the world you are.
Advice
Don't make it unnecessarily difficult.