The current Mobile Services Number Plan is based on an initial ‘0’, followed by atwodigit prefix (‘20’), followed by a further two digits (which indicate the operator) and then a six digit subscriber number, which then requires a caller to dial eleven digits for every national call to a mobile service. Alloperators have multiple two digit prefixes.As the national numbering plan presently does not provide for operator identification codes, the known two digit prefixes of each operator allocated blocks are used as a proxy for operator identification for routing calls from one network to another. Note that specific operator identification codes would be essential if number portability or preselection were introduced in the Loa PDR.
Noting that with the ‘020’ mobile prefix, there are eight following digits, so the number space reserved for mobile services is enough to accommodate 80 million number assignments (noting that digits ‘0’ and ‘1’ are not used for the first digit of operator indicators numbers). The one inconvenience in the current scheme is that ‘020’ for mobiles is very similar to ‘02X’ – where X is 1-9 that is used for fixed services. From a consumer perspective it would be advantageous to designate a separate single digit for mobile services that is different from other services. To do this will require some revision to the current allocations of number space – essentially the fixed services number space. However as this would disrupt the numbering of all mobile users for a small advantage this action is not recommended. The key question in regard to numbering of mobile services is whether the current number space is adequate for the expected life of the number plan.