Ivory Coast: Switching to 10-digit numbers on January 31, 2021

The change of the current national numbering plan by implementing a new ten (10) digit plan known as PNN-10 will be effective on Sunday, January 31, 2021. Mamadou Sanogo , Minister of the Digital Economy and the Post gave this assurance to the press during a meeting in the presence of the Chief of Staff and the Director General of the Telecommunications / ICT Regulatory Authority ( ARTCI ).

At 45 days before the deadline, the Minister reiterated that the passage of the number presenttation of eight (8) numbers (PNN-8) to the new plan number to ten (10) numbers ( PNN-10 ) will actually take place on the night of Saturday 30 to Sunday 31 January 2021.

According to him, the ARTCI is examining, with the operators, a possibility of coexistence of the two plans during a certain adaptation period for users already used to 8 digits. In any case, in order to ensure a smooth passage and minimize inconvenience, voice or SMS assistance will be provided to them and applications to download (for smartphones) will be available to automatically modify their directories specified.

He added that this change in the numbering is effective to prevent any paralysis mainly in the operation of mobile telephone services but also to anticipate the number needs related to the development of new services such as the Internet of Things. that this 10- digit National Numbering Plan is implemented.

The Minister of the Digital Economy and the Post indicated that the PNN-10 offers a theoretical capacity of ten (10) billion numbers including one (01) billion numbers for mobile telephone services and five (05) billion numbers in reserve.