(Business in Cameroon) - Since midnight on November 21, 2014, Cameroon’s telephone dialling officially shifted from 8 to 9 digits. Announced in September by the Minister of Postal Services and Telecommunications (Minipostel), Jean Pierre Biyiti bi Essam, the process will address the problem of 8-digit number options being exhausted, exacerbated by the increase in the number of subscribers with Orange and MTN and the arrival of the new provider, Nexttel.

This adjustment caused significant disruptions on the GSM and wireless networks, making telephone communications difficult and internet connectivity was virtually impossible in some places.

Before this disruption, the three mobile service providers and the longstanding phone company, Camtel, organised a campaign to raise awareness in the first two weeks of November. Using SMS messaging, the mobile phone service providers explained that customers would now need to add the prefix 6 in front of the number before making phone calls on their network. Camtel indicated that consumers needed to replace the 22 and 33 with 243 for all calls on its network.

November 14, 2014, the Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ART) and the telecom companies ran tests across the country for four hours to ensure the move to 9 digits was feasible.

This will be the third time that Cameroon will be changing its dialling system. The first change to 7 digits took place in 2001, followed by the 2007 move to 8 digits. Today, Cameroon has 16 million mobile customers out of a national population estimate of 22 million.