To increase the available telephone numbers in Thailand, both landlines and mobile, by 550 million, the nation’s telecom commission has plans to insert the digit “1” in between the two-digit prefix of landline numbers, effectively changing the number for every landline and allocating some of them to mobile.
According to the commissioner of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), Prawit Leesathapornwongsa, this new three-digit prefix landline change is expected to go into effect in 2021.
The plan, which met early approval on Tuesday, will have its final draft reviewed by NBTC again before a public hearing is held, reported Bangkok Post.
The final draft is expected to be complete early next year.
According to Prawit, rapid growth in the fixed wireless broadband market, along with a rise in the development of Thailand’s digital economy, has necessitated this new numbering system since demand for telephone numbers is expected to increase as the number of users increases.
To comply with the new plan, the state-owned telecommunications company, TOT Public Company Limited, will require a venture of THB6.5 Billion to update their system to accommodate the new numbers.
It was reported that, as of April, 179 million telephone numbers have already been distributed by the NBTC to mobile operators and another 88 million numbers are in reserve. Reportedly, this should be sufficient until 2020.
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