‘O4’ running out as appetite for mobiles increases.
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| Image credit: Flickr |
The ’05’ mobile prefix provides long term certainty for the supply of mobile numbers in OZ, ACMA said today.
The ACMA estimates an additional 100 million numbers will be needed as an adequate supply for the next 20 years beyond 2017.
Australian Communications and Media Authority has made several changes to its Teleco Numbering Plan and will remove the geographic sectors around five capital cities.
It also plans to supplement the supply of numbers in regional areas where the existing supply is exhausted in the future.
Once mobile numbers starting with ’04’ are exhausted- predicted to happen as early as 2017 based on current demand- then the use of the ’05’ prefix will kick in.
“Australia has one of the highest penetration of smartphone devices in the world- over 50%.
‘Demand for mobile numbers is being driven by new technologies like internet capable smart phones, tablets and machine to machine communications, ‘said ACMA Chairman, Chris Chapman.
The removal of geographic sector boundaries from Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide will allow providers greater flexibility to use geographic numbers across wider areas.
This change reflects current trends in the use of numbers and assists in conserving the existing supply of geographic numbers but has no implications for untimed local calling.
To avoid confusion, the ACMA is proposing the removal of a small largely redundant ‘0550’ Location Independent Communications Services (LICS) number range which is located in the middle of the ’05’ number block.
