Digicel welcomes OUR’s expansion of numbering options
Published:Friday | May 19, 2023 | 12:09 AM
JAMAICANS WILL begin to receive local telephone calls from numbers beginning with the area code ‘658’.
The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) made the announcement yesterday that it has recently assigned the nation’s first batch of 10,000 telephone numbers with the code.
This new code will be used in addition to the current 876 area code and not as a replacement. It will ensure that there are enough phone numbers to meet public demand as the OUR’s recent assignment of the codes were executed because they had reached the limit of which numbers can be assigned under the 876 area code.
Elon Parkinson, head of communications and corporate affairs at Digicel Jamaica Limited, informed The Gleaner yesterday that as May 17 was observed as World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, the company welcomed the OUR’s announcement.
“As an essential participant in the introduction of an additional area code to Jamaica since 2021, we have already taken all the necessary steps to ensure network readiness,” he said in an emailed response.
He added that this was a natural step towards the expansion of numbering options for mobile and other digital services as more customers joined the company’s network daily.
Parkinson noted that the company continued to simplify the process for customers to set up services with Digicel.
He added that this move by the OUR marked “another celebration of the rapid evolution of the telecommunication industry” as the regulator was forward-thinking in its actions.
Parkinson also wished to advise customers who use their telephone numbers for two-step authentication or to receive notifications from the places they do business with to ensure that they notify these institutions as soon as they are no longer using the phone number on record.
Ten-digit dialling was implemented in March 2019 following the May 2018 introduction of the new area code ‘658’.
According to the Telecommunications Act, the OUR has full responsibility for assigning telecommunication numbers to service providers and ensuring their use throughout Jamaica.
The OUR is reminding everyone, including business operators and advertisers, to ensure that the 10-digit format is used in the publishing and displaying of all local mobile and landline numbers using the correct area code for each number, i.e. ‘876’ or ‘658’. Persons are also urged to adjust the way they record or store phone numbers to make it clear which area code is applicable to their telephone numbers.