OUR extends permissive 10-digit dialling until March 2019

THE OFFICE of Utilities Regulation (OUR) is reporting that a decision has been taken to extend the permissive 10-digit dialling period by five months, to March 30, 2019.

To facilitate the transition from seven- to 10-digit local dialling, the OUR had established a five-month period of permissive dialling, ending October 30, 2018, during which time both seven and 10 digits may be dialled to complete calls, with a reminder message whenever a seven-digit number is dialled.

“The permissive dialling period was scheduled to end on October 30. However, the OUR received several significant requests for the extension from service providers, and some of their large business customers, asking for more time to address challenges relating to systems employing machine-to-machine communications and PBX telephone systems,” a statement from the utility regulator said.

Elizabeth Bennett Marsh, the OUR’s public education specialist, said that the challenges pertain primarily to some older PBX systems, budgetary constraints prohibiting the timely replacement of affected equipment, and the length of time needed to reconfigure thousands of point-of-sale and alarm systems.

The affected customers include hospitals, hotels, security companies and some major government entities.

On May 30, 2018, a new area code, 658, was implemented in Jamaica to augment the supply of numbers provided under area code 876. The effect of this is that there will be¶ a need to make 10-digit dialling for all local calls mandatory.