Mauritius’ Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) says the country is now ready to move to the 8-digit phone numbering protocol and has since set the deadline for the country’s telephone network operators to migrate. The three operators now have until September 1, 2013.
Back in 2003, the government of Mauritius expressed the need to move to the 8-digit mobile numbering plan for mobile networks. The move however failed to take off in 2009 when the migration deadline was set.
ICTA says the migration failed to materialize because of the country’s poor economic performance, global economic depression and deep financial constraints suffered by the major economic sectors.
Speaking during a consultative meeting on the migration earlier this month, Mauritius’ minister of information and communication technology Tassarajen Pillay Chedumbrum said the government seeks to overhaul the whole numbering system for a better arrangement as the current one does not offer expansion capability.
“At present with the exponential growth in mobile take-up in Mauritius, the situation has become so drastic that the 7-digit Numbering Plan cannot sustain the pressure placed upon it anymore,” stated ICTA.
Should the present numbering structure be maintained, ICTA says it would be unable to allocate any new number blocks.
A situation of non-availability of free leading digits has also been reached under the present plan, which has since hampered the development of the ICT sector.
According to the CIA World Fact Book, Mauritius has approximately 1.3 million people and an estimated 1,275,000 mobile phone subscribers on the three of the country’s mobile operators.
According the ICTA chairman Trilock Dwarka, the 8-Digit Numbering Plan will offer a reservoir of 100 million numbers which will even sustain innovation in the mobile arena.
Chedumbrum added that it would leverage the ICT sector into major development.
According to Research and Markets, a market research body, mobile operator forecast for 2012 to 2015, Mauritius is expected to have more than 1.6 million mobile subscribers by 2015.
This implies the move will get the country ready to accommodate the increasing mobile phone subscribers.
The ICTA, the mobile operators including Cellplus Mobile Communications, Emtel and MTML as well as major telecommunications stakeholders such as consumer organizations and civil society groups have since agreed on this 8-Digit Numbering Migration Plan for all the mobile networks.
