The Ministry of Communications today initiated its plan to add a seventh digit to cellular numbers and consolidate all prefixes assigned to each operator.
As of today (Tuesday, April 20th, 2004) an extra digit will be added to the cellular numbers, as set out below. From now and until October 31, 2004 it will be possible to place a call by dialing either the new or old numbers. As of November 1, 2004 the use of the old numbers will be discontinued; anybody dialing an old number will be connected to a recorded announcement, instructing her/him to dial the new number.
Pelephone, Cellcom, Partner-Orange and Mirs are all operating automatic systems at the network number *0000 (“star”+ 4 zeros) for inquiring as to new numbers. Online number converter applications can be found at the websites of Bezeq, Cellcom, Pelephone, Orange and others.
A seventh digit will be added to and precede the existing 6-digit subscriber number. This additional digit will be identical with the third digit of the existing dialing prefix (except for the numbers of Pelephone’s subscribers with the prefixes 050 and 051).
The existing dialing prefixes of each cellular company will be consolidated into a single prefix per company:
- Pelephone: The prefixes 050, 051, 056, 068 will be consolidated into 050.1
- Cellcom: The prefixes 052, 053, 058, 064, 065 will be consolidated into 052.
- Partner: The prefixes 054, 055, 066, 067 will be consolidated into 054.
- Mirs: The prefix 057 will remain as is.
- Jawall 2 : The prefix 059 will remain as is.
The Ministry said that the plan is intended to achieve the following long-term goals:
- Increase the stock of numbers at the disposal of each cellular operator and vacate prefixes in order to enable the addition of new operators;
- Simplify the dialing of cellular numbers consolidation of all of the prefixes used by every operator into a single prefix which will identify the operator;
- Vacate area code 06 for the benefit of new operators or services in the future.
The numbering plan was prepared with the assistance of international consultant Telcordia.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on Tuesday, April 20, 2004