Declining interest in “geographic” numbers

An interesting side effect of mobile telephony and IP telephony is that the concept of an “area code” (“riktnummer”) seems to be disappearing [PTS 2010] - as associating a number with where you “lived” at the time you were assigned the number does not seem to have much meaning. What does this imply in the scope of EU personal mobility? For example, will country codes be replaced by a new region or global code?

As of May 2014, PTS has announced plans to eliminate “riktnummer” over a 10 year period of time [DNR 14-1477].

Interestingly use of the European Telephony Numbering Space (ETNS) (+388 numbers) ended at the end of 2009, and the number allocation is to be reclaimed by the ITU at the end of 2010!

Slide Notes

PTS, Minnesanteckningar från Nummerforum, Kommunikationsmyndigheten PTS Post- och telestyrelsen (PTS), 15 April 2010 http://www.pts.se/upload/Ovrigt/Tele/nummerforum/nrforum-minnesanteckningar-100415.pdf Links to an external site.

Post- och telestyrelsen (PTS), ‘Strategi för telefoninummerplanen: På lång sikt samt förändringar på kort sikt’, Post- och telestyrelsen (PTS), Stockholm, Sweden, DNR 14-1477, Feb. 2014 [Online]. Available: http://www.pts.se/upload/Remisser/2014/14-1477-nummerplanstrategi-remissversion.pdf Links to an external site.

Transcript

[slide229] And at the same time, what's happened about regular E.164 numbers in Sweden, we're basically getting rid of the so-called "riktnummer". So by may 2014 pts said, no, we're going to eliminate this idea of "riktnummer", you know, numbered exchanges, eight being stockholm, et cetera. we don't need that. the fascinating thing is the european telephony numbering space, which began +388, which were numbers which were valid throughout all of europe, was (yes) recalled! and so as the end of 2010 those numbers ceased to be used any more. So if it was a good idea to get around geographic bindings in Sweden, why didn't we go to European-wide numbers? Well, oops, we can't do that because there are no European-wide numbers available in the numbering scheme.