On January 27 2012 Brazil's telecommunications regulator, ANATEL, published a statement in the Official Gazette stating that, with effect from July 29 2012, an additional digit will be implemented in the numbering of personal mobile services. The current numbering system has eight digits.
The ninth digit will initially be added only to mobile phones from Area 11, which corresponds to the City of Sao Paulo and 63 other municipalities of the metropolitan region. This measure will increase the capacity for Area 11 to allow access for 90 million mobile phones. At present, access is available for 32.5 million active mobile phones in this area, with a total capacity of approximately 44 million.
The ninth digit will be added to the start of all current numbers. This digit should be added at the time of dialing by all users of landline and mobile phones that call Area 11 mobile phones, regardless of their area of origin.
ANATEL will now consider whether to expand the application of the ninth digit to other telecommunications services and to other regions of Brazil. The ninth digit is expected to be fully implemented by December 31 2012.
For further information on this topic please contact Ricardo Barretto Ferreira Da Silva, Fabio Ferreira Kujawski or Thays Castaldi Gentil at BARRETTO FERREIRA KUJAWSKI E BRANCHER – Sociedade de Advogados by telephone (+55 11 3897 0300), fax (+55 11 3897 0330) or email ([email protected], [email protected] or [email protected]).