MyAdhan Blog

Link: Pakistan: Phone number digits to be increased from 7 to 8

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has decided to increase the numbering digits from seven to eight for both the fixed line and mobile segment to meet the growing numbering needs of the telecom sector in the country and create additional resources for the emerging services. PTA Chairman Shahzada Alam Malik told Daily Times here on Saturday that the Authority has decided to revisit the numbering resources as the liberalisation of telecommunication sector in Pakistan has resulted in rapid growth of conventional services besides induction of the new ones, he said. Revisiting the numbering resources would help resolve the problem of frequent allocation of network access codes to various mobile operators, to meet the needs arising out of phenomenal growth in the cellular mobile sector and create more capacity in the numbering plan, to facilitate service providers, to expand their customer base without going into the hassle of introducing new access codes. He said the decision would help make the dialing plan more customers-friendly i.e. one access code for one operator and to prepare the capacity for next 10 years and more, both for the mobile and fixed line markets, he added. The PTA Chairman said that the implementation process for the migration of mobile numbers from 7 to 8 digits spans over four stages. In the first stage Public Notice/ Awareness Campaign would be started, in the second stage Parallel Operation would start followed by the stage three announcements and finally the sterilisation.