Paris, 16 September 1997
The French Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ART) - which establishes the national numbering plan - has just conducted a draw to determine the order in which France Télécom, Netco (Bouygues group) and Télécom Développement, would be given the choice of the value of their E digit - the digit which will be used by telephone subscribers to select their long distance telephone operator from 1st January 1998.
Following the draw, the operators chose the following:
France Téléco : the digit 8
Netco (Bouygues group) : the digit 9
Télécom Développement : the digit 7
Principles of carrier selection
From 1st January 1998, subscribers will be able to choose their long distance operator for national and international calls.
How ? (cf examples in annex)
Subscribers wishing to establish a long distance call using the services of a long distance operator other than their local loop operator (today it is generally France Télécom) will dial a ten-digit number beginning with a digit other than zero, on a call by call basis, in order to choose the long distance operator they prefer.
If subscribers continue to use the zero, they automatically use the local operator to which they subscribe for the handling of the call.
Criteria governing E allocation
There are only seven E values which can be allocated to long distance operators: 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.
Digit 0 is reserved for the local operator; digit 1 for special numbers (112, 15,17,18), and digit 3 for short numbers (such as 36 15).
As E is scarce, ART has established criteria to ensure that it is allocated in a transparent , objective and non-discriminatory manner.
ART thus decided that the E digit would be restricted to network operators licensed to provide a public telephone service and which agreed to roll out and operate a national network and to fulfill the territorial coverage obligations.
EXAMPLES
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| The call is handled by the long distance operator identified by the first digit E = 2,4,5, 6,7,8 or 9. | The call is handled, on a call by call basis, by the long distance operator identified by the first digit E = 2,4,5, 6,7,8 or 9. |
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| Press Contact: Jean-François HERNANDEZ tel : 33 1 40 47 70 33 - fax : 33 1 40 47 71 98 email : Jean-Francois.Hernandez@art-telecom.fr |