São Paulo cell phones add a digit

Yesterday, Sunday, July 29, cell phones in São Paulo (area code 11) added a nine before the number they had. That means the phone number will now have nine digits. The area affected encompasses 64 municipalities, including the city of São Paulo.

There will be two “transition periods.” Between now and August 7, it will be possible to call numbers in the region using eight or nine digits. During the second transition period, between August 7 and January 15, 2013, telephone service providers will be required to intercept calls made with eight digits and inform the caller of the change. It will be up to the provider to decide whether or not to complete or interrupt the call. After January 15, 2013, all calls to area code 11 will have to made using nine digits. 

According to the sector regulatory agency (“Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações – Anatel”), the modification will expand the region’s  capacity from 44 million numbers to 90 million. It is reported that the number of cell phones in São Paulo rose 17% in the last 12 months; that was an increase of over 5 million phones.

The telephone services provider trade associations (“Sindicato Nacional das Empresas de Telefonia e de Serviço Móvel Celular e Pessoal – SindiTelebrasil”) and the (“Sindicato Nacional das Empresas de Telefonia e de Serviço Móvel Celular e Pessoal – SindiTelebrasil”) report that the costs of the change will be footed by them and no charges will be made to users.

Anatel reports that for the time being the ninth digit will be added to phones only in São Paulo, but that at some time in the future the change will take place in the rest of the count as well.