Viet Nam plans to shorten 11-digit mobile phone numbers to 10 digits by replacing three-digit carrier prefixes with new two-digit prefixes.

The move is part of a wider effort to clean up the disorder in telephone numbering.

For example, mobile numbers beginning with 166, 122, 199, and 188 will be replaced by those prefixed by either 80, 30, 50, 40, or 70, depending on the carriers.

Mobile numbers currently prefixed by two-digit carrier codes will remain unchanged.

The move, scheduled for September, is part of a wider effort to clean up the disorder in telephone numbering which got underway last year with the rollout of standardised local dialling codes for landline numbers.

The area codes for landline numbers in all provinces and cities are now in the form of 2xx.

Minister of Information and Communications, Truong Minh Tuan, said the plan for the mobile phone number prefix change was already a year behind schedule.

He has requested that mobile operators finalise the details of their plans by 1 June.

Under the law, subscribers must be notified of any such change 60 days in advance and they can use both the old and new prefixes for a transitional period of 60 days from the date the new codes take effect.

(Source: NDO)