Get ready to the idea dialling mobile numbers with prefixes like “060” and “061”. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has opened up the “06” prefix for the first time as growth in mobile subscriptions propels demand from operators for additional numbers.

Until now, Cell C, for example, has had access to numbers in the “084” and “074” ranges only, but Icasa has now granted the mobile operator access to all numbers starting “0610”, “0611”, “0612” and “0613”.

Vodacom, meanwhile, has been given access to “0606”, “0607”, “0608” and “0609” and MTN is now using “0603”, “0604” and “0605” in addition to the more familiar prefixes like “083” and “073”.

When the cellphone industry was founded in the early 1990s, South Africa’s first two licensed mobile operators, Vodacom and MTN, were given access to the “082” and “083” number ranges. However, growth in demand from consumers far outstripped initial industry expectations, with the telecommunications regulator forced to open up new numbers to the two operators on a regular basis as a result.

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When Cell C was licensed at the turn of the century, it was given access to the “084” number block, and later to numbers with the “074” prefix.

When 8ta, Telkom’s consumer mobile arm, was launched in 2010, it scored a bit of a coup in securing the “081” number block, rather than “085”. The view at the time was that this was a victory for Telkom in that it could give consumers the impression that the operator was first or number one in the mobile industry. — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media