Board of Directors of the Communications and Information Technology Commission Approves the Second Version of the National Numbering Plan

The communications and information technology sector has witnessed rapid development and growth in modern technologies and services, whether related to mobile telecommunications services or broadband services. This has coincided with an expansion in infrastructure and an increase in the number of subscriptions and users of many services. In light of this, the Commission reviewed the previous version of the National Numbering Plan, and made some amendments to it to enable it to keep pace with these developments witnessed by the sector, while at the same time being able to accommodate subsequent and potential future developments.

Accordingly, the Commission's Board of Directors approved the second version of the National Numbering Plan in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which aims to ensure the availability of numbers for years to come, keeping pace with the continuous developments in services and technology in the communications and information technology sector. Among the plan's most notable features is work to increase the ranges of mobile and fixed telecommunications service numbers, as well as contributing to the creation of new services and modern technologies and applications.

The Commission affirms its keenness that the new amendments to the plan will not affect current communications services, but will rather enhance their capacity and ability to accommodate new developments in services and the numbers of subscriptions and users. The change that subscribers will notice when the new numbering plan is applied will be limited to the addition of a single digit to the six internal area codes; there will be a change in the way fixed telephone numbers outside the caller's local area are dialed, represented by adding the digit (1) to the internal area codes; so the codes (01, 02, 03, 04, 06, 07) will become (011, 012, 013, 014, 016, 017).

Engineer Abdullah bin Abdulrahman Al-Mubaddel, Director General of Technical Standards and Numbering and supervisor of the plan, noted that adding this digit will help provide a stock of numbers that can be used to enhance the provision of fixed telecommunications services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in general, and mobile phone services and the continuous demand for numbers for these services in particular. Implementing this plan requires making adjustments to some operators' systems, and this change will come in stages, as it will not be an immediate and rapid change. In issuing this plan, the Commission took into account that the benefits of the new change should be in everyone's interest — subscribers and operators alike — and that the impact of the changes should be limited for both operators and subscribers, while being consistent with international standards.

The mechanism for implementing the plan will be announced at a later stage, in coordination between the Commission and telecommunications service providers. Subscribers will also be notified at a later time of the dates for making the amendments, through a dedicated media campaign, during which the amendments will be explained, introduced, and their objectives and content communicated.