The number “0” in area codes for landline subscribers on the new IMS network in Lebanon will be replaced with “2,” the Ministry of Telecommunications announced in a new decision.
With this decision, landline phone calls within Lebanon on the IMS network will, for instance, start with “21” instead of “01,” “27” instead of “07,” “29” instead of “09,” and so on for the remaining area codes.
Similarly, inbound international calls to landline numbers will start with “009612.”
Apart from the replacement of “0” with “2”, the logical distribution of the codes across the various areas will remain unchanged.
According to the decision, all new landline numbers will be programmed on the IMS network with the code switch implemented, and the number groups currently allocated to landline subscribers will be used for this purpose.
Regarding numbers registered on the old network, they will not be changed, and they will continue to have “0” at their beginning (01, 07, 09, etc…) until they are transferred to the IMS network, upon which they will be affected by the code switch.
The migration of the currently registered lines to the IMS network will be done gradually, the Telecommunications Ministry noted in the decision.
The ministry said the move comes after the success of the experiments conducted by the Technical Directorate on all operating platforms and with the two cellular networks, Touch and Alfa, to pass telecommunications to and from the IMS network.
