Hi, let me please explain the steps you need to do to reproduce the error:
593 is the country code for Ecuador, and all area codes are 1 digit long.
Let me remark that in the year 2001 Ecuador changed local phone numbers from
6 to 7 digits
First, set up phone and modem options in control panel to the following:
Edit or create a location and specify Ecuador as a country.
Area codes in Ecuador are 1 digit long.
Try "2" for instance.
Create a new area code rule: if you dial area code "2" don't dial anything
else.

Leave everything else at defaults.

Then enter the following phone number as a phone number for a given contact
in outlook:
(2) 250-5233
double click on the phone number.
the check phone number dialog box appears.
Verify that the country/region is set to Ecuador
the local number appears as:
(2) 250-5233
then close the dialog box
now outlook shows
+593 22505233
and if you double click again, the check phone number dialog box shows:
22505233

the area code does not show in the correct textbox.
if you try instead to write the correct area code "2" in the area code text
box
(at the check phone number dialog box) and the 7 digit number (2505233) in
the textbox below then it appears as +593(2) 2505233; but if you again click
on it:
the following appears in the local number dialog box.

If you try with 6 digit local numbers, none of this nonsense happens, and it
works the way it is supposed to work:
either type +593 (2) 250-523
or (2) 250-523
or 250-523
and when you double click, everything appears where it should:
Country displays as Ecuador
Area code shows 2
and the local number shows as 250-523

Therefore it seems that either windows or outlook have this old behavior
hardwired.
I already looked for it in the registry, but none of this was found.

To be honest, things like this should be user-configurable to avoid
"undocumented features" like this.

Thanks for your help.