VietNamNet Bridge – Following the lead of Viet Nam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), five other communication companies will add a prefix to their fixed phone numbers starting October 26.

Experts at VNPT work to prepare for the fixed phone number change starting on October 5.

This means, for example, that a caller phoning Ha Noi would have to dial 04 then the new prefix before the original number.

Callers must recognise the phone company of the person they are trying to reach in order to use the appropriate prefix.

They can do this only by knowing that VNPT’s fixed phone numbers start with a 5, 6, 7 and 8.

Meanwhile, EVN Tele-com numbers start with the numbers 20 to 25.

Viettel’s fixed phone numbers run from 26 to 29x. Sai Gon Postel uses 40 to 44, VTC uses numbers starting with 45 and FPT uses 30.

The country now has 13.4 million fixed phone subscriptions, and about 90 per cent of them belong to VNPT.

Earlier on Sunday, VNPT successfully changed its fixed phone number to include the new “3″ prefix. Until now, no technical trouble has been reported.

Subscribers find that the new prefixes will be inconvenient and confusing.

Many people complain that they can not recognise the communication service supplier just by looking at the fixed phone number. This would then make it challenging to choose the correct prefix number.

“Sometimes I can not remember which company supplies the fixed phone service to my family. How can I know other people’s supplier? It is too complicated,” said Hong Nhung, a young person in Ha Noi.

“I am sure that not many people know that VNPT’s fixed phone number starts with 5, 6, 7 and 8, or that Viettel and EVN Telecom’s numbers start with the number 2,” said Thanh Hoa, another resident of Ha Noi.

Hoa said that she might press all prefix numbers until she chooses the correct one, because she can not remember the new regulation.

While individuals will certainly be inconvenienced, they will likely not experience the negative financial effects that businessman and companies might.

Nguyen Thi Thoa, owner of a private garment company in HCM City said that she had to have new business cards made more than once, as she initially thought all numbers are prefixed by “3″ and later found out her phone provider was prefixed by “6″.

“It was inconvenient. My customers cannot know which service I am using to add 3, 4, 5 or 6,” Thoa said.

Taxi companies are strongly affected. These companies have to pay a lot of money, about VND5-20 million (US$300-1,300), to buy a phone number which is easy to remember.

“The changing creates difficulties for us. It also wastes our money to buy a new phone number,” said Truong Quang Man, deputy general director of Mai Linh Group.

The changing of their fixed phone number would make it difficult to remember, Man said.

According to Mai Linh’s leaders, the group does not have any official statistics on potential total financial damage.

However, it costs them about VND1.8 billion ($109,000) to print a new phone number on their 6,000 taxi nation-wide.

Man said that there should be a policy to compensate companies, especially taxi companies, for this damage.

(Source: Viet Nam News)