The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) will introduce a new mobile phone number format with 11 digits effective Dec 15 this year.

Its director for Numbering Planning Department, Norizan Ghazali, said the new format would use the 3+8 structure compared to the existing 3+7 and all service providers would use a similar '011' prefix, for example, 011 1234 5678.

'The existing structure that involves 31 million numbers are not required to migrate to the new 3+8, as both will co-exist after the roll-out,' he told reporters after the briefing on the new mobile phone number format today.

Norizan said the new format was expected to solve insufficient capacity on the existing 3+7 structure, encourage new entrants, give more capacity of numbers and part of the MCMC's long-term planning.

'The industry has been utilising 60 million numbers since 20 years ago with 3+7 structure especially since the launch of prepaid mobile services in 1995.

'The new shared prefix '011' could accommodate 900 million numbers if required by either existing or new service providers,' he said.

Under the new format, Norizan said, MCMC would regulate first level digit and prefix which was no longer exclusive to any service providers.

Meanwhile, he said, the commission has been working closely with the industry through consultative group on numbering since 2007 to establish the new format.

'Several initiatives have also been conducted such as re-farming exercise to enhance the utilisation of 3+7 structure and the sharing of ''014'' prefix,' he said.

Norizan urged service providers, content providers, private automatic branch exchange, private branch exchange systems administrators, banking systems administrators and other stakeholders to prepare their systems in line with the use of these numbers.

'We hope their early action could prevent any disruptions to services once the new ''011'' prefix and accompanying eight-digit telephone numbers are implemented,' he said. -- Bernama