ALL FIXED telephone numbers will change to eight digits from the current six by December 1, with all calls within Cyprus charged at the same rate, the chairman of the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CyTA), Efstathios Papadakis, told the House Finance Committee yesterday.
“The area code — 02, 05, 04 etc — will be replaced by two extra digits, which will be added to your phone number according to the district you live in,” Papadakis said.
Nicosia numbers, for example, will start with 22, and Limassol numbers will start with 25.
All calls will be charged at the same rate – two cents per two minutes. This is double the current local rates, and more than half the cost of inter-city calls.
A call within the same district is currently charged at two cents per four minutes, while a peak time call made between districts costs three cents per minute, two cents a minute off peak.
Papadakis added that CyTA was planning to expand its services to the Middle East, central and eastern Europe and the Balkans.
“There is a possibility of co-operating with an Israeli company,” he said.
Papadakis said such a move would boost Cyprus’ prestige from a political point of view.
He said the planned developments would help CyTA cope with market competition ahead of liberalisation.
The CyTA boss told deputies that there was almost one line for every citizen in Cyprus, more than in most European countries.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
