Illustrative image (Photo info.datel-group.com) Hanoi (VNA) – The diallingcodes of all cities and provinces, except Hanoi and HCM City, will change to athree-digit number early next year.
The process willkick off after Tet (Lunar New Year) holidays, on February 11, the Ministry ofInformation and Communications (MoIC) announced on November23.
The callingcodes of Da Nang and 12 other provinces will change then. Another 23 localitieswill get new codes on April 15. The final phase will be initiated on June 17 forthe rest of the country.
People will beable to use both the old and the new codes for a month after the change,following which the old codes will stop working.
The MoIC saidits aim is to make all area codes uniformly three digits; currently there areone-, two- and three-digit codes. With the new codes, all phones numbers willhave 11 numbers; they range from 10 to 11 now.
The ministrywill use the opportunity to renumber phone codes based on geographical location.Provinces in the north-western region, for example, will have their codes beginwith 21. The north-eastern region above Hanoi will have the new code of 20x,while the sub-Hanoi region’s will be 22x.
The diallingcodes of the upper half of the central region will begin with 23, while it willbe 25 for the lower half.
The new code forprovinces in the central highlands will be 26x, in the south-eastern region itwill be 27x, while in the south-western region it will be29x.
Hanoi and HCMCity will be the only two cities to have two-digit codes of 24 and 28,respectively. The codes of the three central cities of Can Tho, Da Nang and HaiPhong will be 292, 236 and 225, respectively./.
VNA
