ISLAMABAD, April 1: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Tuesday announced migration of cellular subscriber numbers from seven to eight digits as of April 1.

The dialling codes of all mobile companies had also been changed from four digits to three.

“The move is aimed to ease the load on the industry for several years to come,” a PTA spokesman said.

Dialling code of the companies have been shortened, which will allow them to accommodate 10 million subscribers in one code than the usual one million. But nothing has changed for the subscribers who will experience no difference when they are dialling cellphone numbers, he added.

According to the PTA, as part of new Mobile Numbering Plan, all mobile numbers in the country would now comprise of eight digits by moving the last digit of the dialling code into the subscriber’s number. In this manner, the dialling code would be reduced to three digits, e.g. 0333-51xxxxx would now be 033- 351xxxxx.

The PTA said numbers of Mobilink, Warid, Ufone and Telenor would remain the same 11 digits as before. For Paktel (China Mobile), Instaphone and SCOM (AJK and Northern Areas), in addition to aforementioned shifting of subscriber numbers, digits of their dialling code would also change, i.e. 0304-51xxxxx would be 031-451xxxxx; 0320-51xxxxx would be 036-451xxxxx; and 0335- 61xxxxx would be 035-561xxxxx.

All these changes have become effective from April 1 (today). Until June 30, all old and new numbers could be dialled. However, from July 1 onwards only new numbers will be valid, the PTA spokesman said.

The PTA with the help of all cellular, fixed line and WLL operators had ensured that this change remained hassle-free for the consumers. However, in case callers face any difficulty they may contact their respective operator, or dial PTA’s com-plaint number 0800-55055 if the interruption in their service continues.