In Russia, from 2025, for calls within the region, mobile and long-distance calls, you will need to dial the code 0 instead of 8, and for international calls – 00 instead of 8-10. The corresponding project was prepared by the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation, the order “On the approval and implementation of the Russian numbering system and plan” was published on Thursday, February 11, on the portal of draft regulations.
It is noted that format 0 and 00 are recommended by the International Telecommunication Union. At the same time, from 2025 to 2028, it is planned to switch to a closed numbering plan for local calls, which will require dialing a national number. Now in Russia there is an open plan, for which a five-, six- or seven-digit number without a city code is used for intracity connections.
The Ministry of Communications (the predecessor of the Ministry of Digital Industry) was planning to switch to dialing through 0 and 00 since the 2000s. To do this, in 2006, emergency numbers (01, 02, 03), used since the times of the USSR, were transferred to the three-digit format (101, 102 103), as well as city codes starting with zero, for example, the Moscow code changed from 095 to 495.
As RIA Novosti clarifies, this project was created with the aim of assigning the number “122” to the “Unified service for operational assistance to citizens on the provision of medical assistance” in accordance with a government decree.
On February 3, it was reported that the Ministry of Telecommunications had prepared a draft amendment to the law “On Communications”, which provides for the exclusion of information about the location of a mobile phone from the law on privacy of communications. The amendments will make it possible to search for tens of thousands of people who are lost every year. At the same time, the bill will comply with the legislation on personal data, since the location coordinates do not apply to them.