Insights · Updated 2026-08

What is a PLMN and how do you read one?

A PLMN — Public Land Mobile Network — is the globally unique identifier for one mobile network. It is nothing more than a Mobile Country Code glued to a Mobile Network Code, for example 23002. That five- or six-digit number is what your phone actually compares against when it decides which network to camp on, so it turns up everywhere from cell broadcasts to the roaming lists on your SIM. Here is how to read one and where you will meet them.

PLMN = MCC + MNC

A PLMN is a concatenation, not a new numbering scheme. The first three digits are the MCC (the country); the remaining two or three are the MNC (the operator within that country). If you understand those two parts you can already read any PLMN — the identifier just removes the space between them and treats the whole thing as one key.

Length: five digits or six?

A PLMN is five digits when the MNC is two digits and six when the MNC is three. That single fact causes most of the confusion people hit. Because 460 (China) and 230 (Czech Republic) use two-digit MNCs, their PLMNs are five digits; because 310 (United States) uses three-digit MNCs, its PLMNs are six. You cannot tell the split just by looking at a raw string of digits — you have to know the MNC length used in that country, which is exactly why the codes are stored as separate, zero-padded fields.

Real PLMNs across countries

Every row below is a live allocation you can open on the site:

Where PLMNs show up

• Cell broadcast and network selection. Each cell advertises its PLMN in the system information it transmits. Your handset reads it to display the operator name and to decide whether to attach automatically or offer manual selection.
• Lists stored on the SIM. A SIM carries several PLMN lists — the operator's preferred roaming partners, equivalent home networks, and a forbidden-PLMN list of networks it should not retry. These are what shape which foreign network you land on abroad.
• The IMSI. The PLMN is literally the front of your IMSI, so it is present in every attach request. See IMSI explained.

Home, visited and equivalent networks

When roaming, the network your SIM belongs to is your Home PLMN (HPLMN) and the one you are camped on is the Visited PLMN (VPLMN). Operators also publish Equivalent Home PLMNs (EHPLMN) so that sister networks — different PLMNs owned by the same group, or a legacy code kept for compatibility — are treated as home rather than as roaming. Reading the PLMN is how every one of these decisions starts.

To decode a code you have in hand, paste it into the searchable registry or call the API; for the wider country picture see the MCC code list by country.