The Communications Authority Launches Public Consultation on Proposed Measures for More Efficient Utilisation of the 8-digit Numbering Plan

The Communications Authority ("CA") today (29 October 2015) launched a public consultation to seek views of the general public and the telecommunications industry on possible measures for making available additional telephone number resources for allocation to mobile services through more efficient utilisation of the existing 8-digit numbering plan. 

"Telecommunications numbers are finite public resources.  With the continuous development of the telecommunications services in Hong Kong, the demand for subscriber numbers, especially for mobile services, has continued to rise.  With the strong growth of mobile services, it is forecast that the numbers in the current 8-digit numbering plan set aside for allocation to mobile services may be used up as early as November 2018," a spokesperson for the CA said.

To make available mobile numbers to meet the demand, the CA proposes the following five measures so as to maximise the use of existing resources in the 8-digit numbering plan -

1. relocating some of the existing numbers for paging services and re-allocating some of the numbers in the "7(0-3)X" levels (from 70XX XXXX to 73XX XXXX) for mobile services;
2. re-allocating numbers in the "4X" level (i.e. 4XXX XXXX) for mobile services;
3. re-allocating vacant numbers in the "8(1-3)X" levels (from 81XX XXXX to 83XX XXXX) for mobile services;
4. raising the threshold of utilisation rate for allocation of additional numbers to network operators; and
5. releasing most of the Special Number Blocks (which are number blocks in a special or easily recognisable pattern that have been reserved by the CA for some special purposes) for normal allocation.

"If all the five measures are to be implemented, a total of 15.72 million subscriber numbers will become available for allocation to mobile services.  This will extend the life span of the existing 8-digit numbering plan by around 10 years to September 2028," the spokesperson said. 

"Another possible option to address the mobile number shortage is the wholesale migration of the existing 8-digit numbering plan to a longer digit one.  However, such a migration will come with huge social and economic costs on the community, and the CA considers that this option should not be lightly pursued unless there is concrete evidence that the 8-digit numbering plan is unable to cope with the current and future demand of the community and all possible measures for ensuring the efficient use of the existing 8-digit numbering plan have been exhausted," the spokesperson continued.

The CA invites views from the general public and the telecommunications industry on the proposed measures and the timeframe under which they should be implemented.  Comments and views should reach the Office of the Communications Authority on or before 29 December 2015.  The public consultation paper can be downloaded from the CA's website.

Communications Authority
29 October 2015