12 million telephone lines renumbered throughout the country
On the night of the 21st and early morning of the 22nd of September, all telephone lines in the Czech Republic were renumbered in order to bring the country's form of numbering in accordance with EU norms. A total of some 12 million fixed and mobile phone lines now have 9 digits. The zeros before all mobile phones have been dropped and those making national calls no longer need to bother with area codes. Dita Asiedu reports:
To explain. Before the renumbering took place, anyone calling Radio Prague from outside the capital had to dial 02 for Prague and then 2155 2930 for the radio. Now, there is only one number that is called from anywhere within the country, including Prague - 22155 2931.
Czech Telecom has also reduced the number of regions, in which subscribers call for local tariffs from 159 to 14. With this change, the average telecom customer is therefore expected to save about a fifth of his monthly fixed line costs.
All emergency calls, additional services and operator access codes will begin with the number 1. All national subscriber numbers in the fixed network will begin with the numbers 2, 3, 4 and 5. The numbers of mobile operators, access to the Internet and other additional services of all fixed operators will begin with the numbers 6, 7, 8 and 9.
Although the renumbering process changes much for Czech residents, the format in which calls are made to the Czech Republic from abroad remains the same, although there is no longer an area code. So if you want to call Radio Prague from abroad dial the international code for the Czech Republic, which is +420 and then the new number, 22155 2931.
