Moscow residents will need to make a few more taps on the keypad beginning Sunday as the Moscow City Telephone Company, or MGTS, introduces mandatory 10-digit dialing for all landline and mobile calls.
Meanwhile, the capital's expansion into the Moscow region will change other numbering plans.
Until now, Muscovites could dial only the last seven digits if they were in the 495 zone and were calling a number in the same zone. But now, as part of an effort to ensure "quality" and complete use of the "digital network," according to the MGTS website, it will be necessary to always dial 10 digits for phone numbers with city code 495, 499 or 498.
As part of the federal government's "Greater Moscow" plan, other changes are taking effect on Sunday.
Calls to and from the 496 code in the parts of the Moscow region that now belong to the capital made to any number starting with 495, 499 or 498 will be charged as local calls, Rostelecom, the state-owned telecommunications company, said Friday in a press release. MGTS had stated earlier this month that such calls would be charged at inter-city rates.
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