Moscows New Phone Codes

[Rvrwind]

<tit>MOSCOW TRANSITS TO A NEW REGIONAL TELEPHONE CODE
From February 1, Moscow fully transits to the regional telephone code 495, reports the PR service of Moscow City Telephone Network (MGTS). This will be the end of the transitional period during which the old and the new telephone codes of Moscow (095 and 495 respectively) have been in effect.

Starting from February 1, it is necessary to use code 495 for calls to Moscow. MGTS reports, "An automatic informer will be installed in the networks for convenience of subscribers. In case of dialing of the old code it will inform the caller about the error and will report the right code."

Telephone codes of the geographic zones starting from zero were changed since December 1, 2005. The first digit "0" was changed for "4."

The PR service explained that this was done to receive a possibility to introduce new rules for connection of subscribers to intercity and international telephone communication networks.

The Communication and Information Technologies Ministry plans to introduce "0" and "00" instead of "8" and "8-10" respectively for dialing of intercity or international networks. It is planned to reassign the vacated digit "8" to cellular communication operators but this will happen not earlier than 2008.

MGTS also reminds about the rules for dialing telephone numbers for calls inside of Moscow in codes 499 and 495. In case of a call inside of code 499 it is necessary to dial 499-000-00-00, in case of a call from code 405 to a number in code 499 it is necessary to dial 8 (499) 000-00-00, in case of a call from code 499 to a number in code 495 it is necessary to dial 8 (495) 000-00-00. In this case, a call is not considered an intercity call because it remains within the network of MGTS.

Besides Moscow, the first digit of the intercity code "0" is substituted with "4" in 18 regions, namely Belgorod, Bryansk, Kaliningrad, Kaluga, Kostroma, Kursk, Lipetsk, Moscow, Orel, Ryazan, Smolensk, Tambov, Tver, Tula and Yaroslavl Regions.
<ref>newsru.com, January 30, 2006

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