Changing telephone area codes of some localities from March 1, 2015

(Baonghean) - As of March 1, 2015, the way to make phone calls to fixed and mobile subscribers in Vietnam will officially change. The change is towards being easy to remember, unified, creating equality in the number of prefixes between networks and many other utilities. However, for users, the change will affect the way they use the service. This article provides information related to the change in the hope of helping everyone get used to it.

Major changes

The new telephone area code planning will be in the range of 200 to 299. (Illustration photo)

“Circular No. 22/2014/TT-BTTTT on telecommunications numbering planning” takes effect from March 1, 2015. Accordingly, the fixed telephone area codes of provinces and centrally-run cities will replace Decision 52/2006/QD-BBCVT and Decision 53/2006/QD-BBCVT of the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications. According to Circular 22, the landline fixed telecommunications subscriber number is 7-8 digits long. The landline fixed telecommunications subscriber number is 7 digits long. The landline mobile telecommunications subscriber number is 7 digits long. For private telecommunications networks of Party, State agencies, the Ministry of National Defense, and the Ministry of Public Security, the subscriber number is 5, 6, or 7 digits long depending on the scale of each network and the application period. The national emergency service number has 3 digits, including: Number 112 is the Search and Rescue service number, number 113 is the Police service number, number 114 is the Fire Department service number, number 115 is the Medical Emergency service number...

In addition, the mandatory customer support service number is a shared number with 3 digits as follows: 101 is the service number for registering domestic calls via telephone operators, 110 is the service number for registering international calls via telephone operators, 116 is the service number for looking up landline telephone subscriber numbers, 119 is the service number for reporting a broken landline telephone number...

The new plan also added codes for new services and future backups such as: short message service numbers, network codes, Internet phone subscribers... In addition, the plan also stipulates 19 additional backup area codes such as: 200, 201, 202, 217, 223, 224, 230, 231...

Reason for change

The Ministry of Information and Communications affirmed: "Circular No. 22/2014/TT-BTTTT on telecommunications number planning" aims to ensure fairness and transparency for businesses and service users, minimizing negative impacts that may arise for businesses and service users. Also according to the Ministry of Information and Communications, in recent years, the number of mobile phone subscribers has increased, while the number of fixed phone subscribers has decreased. And the trend of decreasing fixed phone subscribers may continue in the coming years. Currently, the total number of fixed phone and mobile phone subscribers in Vietnam is about 130 million, of which the number of fixed phone subscribers is nearly 7 million (5.4% of the total number of subscribers), the number of mobile phone subscribers is more than 120 million (94.6% of the total number of subscribers). With the strong development of the mobile telecommunications market, there will be a shortage of mobile numbers while there will be a surplus of fixed phone numbers. The new plan will solve this problem by planning 1 code head as area code, 8 code heads as network code, of which 6 are network codes for mobile networks, 1 network code head used for mobile subscribers as equipment and 1 code head for other telecommunications networks such as satellite fixed telecommunications networks, private telecommunications networks, Internet telephone networks and backup.

Do not change landline number

Currently, the length of the landline subscriber number in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City is 8 digits, the remaining provinces have 7 digits. This leads to inconsistent dialing length when making long-distance calls within the country or calling from mobile networks to landline subscribers. Depending on the province or city, the dialing length is 10 or 11 digits including the country prefix “0”. With no uniformity in dialing length, it is easy to cause confusion and difficulty for service users to remember.

Circular 22 has resolved this problem by planning the area code length to be 2 or 3 digits, the length of the landline subscriber number remains 7 or 8 digits depending on the specific numbering area. Specifically, regarding the area code length, the 2 cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh have 2 digits, 61 provinces/cities have 3 digits. Regarding the length of the landline subscriber number, it remains the same as it is now. Thus, the dialing length when making long distance calls within the country or calling from the mobile network to a landline subscriber is consistent nationwide, all are 11 digits including the national prefix "0". The 4 provinces that do not change their landline area codes are Hoa Binh (remaining 218), Vinh Phuc (211), Ha Giang (219), Phu Tho (210). The Nghe An area code will change from 38 to 238.

Mobile phone numbers have only 10 digits left.

According to the old planning and actual use, there are currently two different mobile network code lengths: 2 digits (for the 9x prefix) and 3 digits (for the 1xx prefix), while the mobile subscriber number length is 7 digits. This leads to a situation where depending on the network code, the dialing length will be 10 or 11 digits. This inconsistency can easily cause confusion and difficulty for service users to remember. For telecommunications businesses, it creates unfairness in dialing. The 1xx numbers themselves are often "discriminated" as new SIMs, used only for promotions, or even junk SIMs, so they are not popular with users. 11-digit phone numbers do not attract customers, while the 10-digit number pool is almost exhausted... The new planning has solved this problem by planning 1 code head as the area code, 8 network codes and 1 network code head for other telecommunications networks. With the new planning, the mobile network code is 2 digits, the length of the mobile phone subscriber number remains the same as the current 7 digits. Thus, the dialing length when calling a mobile phone subscriber is consistent for all telecommunications businesses and service users, all are 10 digits.

Phan Nguyen Hao

(Deputy Director of Nghe An Department of Information and Communications)