Viet Nam will change the landline telephone area codes in Da Nang and 12 central and northern mountainous provinces from Saturday, the 1^st step in a long-term plan to simplify the country’s telecommunications network.

The codes will start with start with 02 and be either 3 or 4 digits long.  Callers will be required to dial the new area code (plus the 7-digit number) to place a domestic call.

Also on the list are Quang Nam and Thua Thien-Hue, home to popular resort towns Hoi An and Hue.

Later phases finishing in August will change the codes in another 46 localities including Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City.  The codes in Vinh Phuc (0211), Phu Tho (021), Hoa Binh (018) and Ha Giang (019) in northern Viet Nam will remain the same.

Minister of Information and Communications Truong Minh Tuan said that people’s existing phone numbers will remain the same and there won’t be any changes to calls between fixed line numbers within the same province.

However, the changes will affect calls between different provinces and incoming calls from mobile phones and foreign countries to a fixed line number in Viet Nam, Tuan said. In these cases, callers will be required to use the new area codes.

Viet Nam constructed its first repository of phone numbers in 2006 after eliminating a monopoly in the telecommunications sector, but the area codes and network codes of the previous networks have been left unchanged to avoid confusion.

The ministry hopes that the area code change will solve inconsistencies in Viet Nam’s area code system without having a big impact on Viet Nam’s telecom traffic and users.

Reports on Viet Nam’s telecoms sector show that inter-provincial calls and mobile and international calls to fixed landlines in Viet Nam only account for 1.6% of the country’s total telecom traffic.

The ministry said the changes will be the first step in a long-term plan to reduce the number of area codes from 63 to only 10. Under the plan, adjacent provinces and cities will be grouped into regions with one area code. This should make the telecom network easier to manage, while people living in provinces with same area code will enjoy lower call rates.

(Source: VnExpress/International)