New eight digit mobile numbers in Oman to begin with 'seven'

Muscat: New eight-digit mobile numbers starting with the number 7 instead of 9 will be launched on July 17, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of Oman announced on Monday.
The numbers will be available to subscribers through telecom operators, except for special numbers, which will be electronically auctioned in a transparent manner.
“The allocation of these numbers will take place later through licensees once the auction hosting scheme is prepared,” the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said in a statement issued on Monday. Hamdan Moosa Al Harasi, acting vice president, corporate strategy at Omantel, confirmed TRA’s plan, saying this would be the second major change in the numbering plan after the full overhaul that occurred in 2004-2005 when mobile numbers were changed from seven to eight digits and fixed numbers from six to eight digits.
Thanking TRA for this initiative, which will ensure operators’ ability to meet the rapid growth in mobile subscribers, Al Harasi said this change will not have an impact on the existing numbers, nor the services offered to customers.
“We will communicate the introduction of the new range very soon. We are already working closely with TRA to ensure the availability of the new range,” he added.
This will make available 10 million new numbers for mobile phones to accommodate the expected volume of demand in the coming period.
In Oman, there are 6,661,166 mobile subscribers, with a penetration level of 155 per cent.
The country’s population is around 4 million.
Prepaid mobile subscribers by the end of April this year stood at 6,063,434, up from 6,045,312 in March last year, while post-paid mobile connections stood at 597,732 by the end of April, up slightly from 597,558 subscribers at the end of March last year.
TRA said the introduction of the number seven is in response to the growing demand for telecommunications numbers due to the exhaustion of number nine blocks.
“In this context, TRA would like to state that the level block numbers starting with the number seven provide an additional option for mobile phone users rather than an alternative to the currently used level nine,” it stated.
The authority is committed to managing all the telecommunications numbers in Oman to ensure implementation of the National Numbering Plan to meet the growing demand for both fixed and mobile phone numbers, with regards to population growth and the rise in ICT use in business and commercial entities in Oman.
TRA operated closely with licensed operators to launch this level by preparing the technical aspects and the international coordination of the level seven number block with the licensees.