Telephone numbering will be nine digits and in 2023, new cell lines will begin with 8
Within three years, landline and mobile telephone numbers in Guatemala will consist of 9 digits and the process will begin in 2023, when all new cell phones assigned will begin with the number 8.
As happened between 2002 and 2003, before the telephone numbers of landlines and cell phones went from seven to eight numbers, there was a reordering, and now the Superintendency of Telecommunications (SIT) works on the new numbering system to nine digits, which could be in force in 2025.
Saying that the project is medium-term, but it entails a series of processes, which begin with the issuance of technical-administrative resolutions that will give legal life to the nine digits, before the new numbering materializes, informed the competent authorities .
first advances
The National Numbering Plan is already under analysis and involves making changes to the platforms and establishing the transition, just as it happened 20 years ago, said the head of the SIT, Marco Antonio Baten Ruiz, in an interview with Free Press.
In addition, the number block that will start with eight is about to be opened and that is why that number will be enabled as part of the mobile service strategies. In other words, in 2023, the new cellular numbers that are assigned could already start with the number eight, which will depend on the requests made by the numbering operators.
The resolution of the digit eight as a new numerical block for mobile telephony was recently enabled. This is how the numbers for mobile telephony assigned are three, four, five and eight from the next year. While for fixed telephony they are two and seven. The official clarified that people will continue to keep their current numbers.
More numbers
The trend of more numbers is associated with the demand observed during the pandemic, and with the communication needs for teleworking, telestudy and telehealth, remarked Ricardo Flores, an expert in telecommunications.
Although the market and the number of lines reported by subscribers as of June 2022 is 20 million 459 thousand cell phone lines, the development shows that it is very stable, since a large part of the users are using IP data platforms – telephony over the internet-, to be able to communicate, and for that reason, there is greater demand for broadband -downloads.
However, he explained that, in the long term, there are studies on a global scale that talk about the use of satellite telephony, and that will be the next telecommunications market.
