Having been designed prior to the growth of mobile services in the Lao PDR, the 2003 Number Plan placed considerable emphasis on arrangements for fixed network services and structures reflecting good practice of the time. This resulted in the creation of a large number of area codes (initially ten but later eighteen)) coupled with commensurate usage of the number space (considering the area codes, the fixed network consumed eightleading digits of the available ten. This required a special arrangement for mobile service (‘020’) and WLL (‘030’). Within this scheme ofthe remaining digits, two digits must bereserved, one for access codes and short dialling codes and one for future update of the number plan.