Wednesday, July 13, 2011

+211 - The ITU has assigned this E.164 country code to South Sudan, following official recognition of the coutnry

[isria] The Republic of South Sudan has been issued 211 by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) as the country code for telecommunications, H.E. Madut Biar Yel, the minister for Telecommunications and Postal Services, has announced.

Addressing the media at the ministry’s headquarters this morning, the minister reported that they have been in touch with the ITU over the issue and are delighted with the telecommunications body’s prompt action on the matter.

He announced that the code will be activated 48 hours after the official recognition of the Republic of South Sudan by the United Nations. He also reported that the United Nations General Assembly is meeting today to formally recognize the new country. He expressed confidence that recognition process will sail through smoothly and that the code will be in operation shortly.

The minister explained that the new code is memorable given that the digits closely resemble 2011 which is the birthday of the new country. He also said that the digits are simple and can be remembered by all and sundry.

He urged the telecommunications operators in the country to configure their systems appropriately and roll out the new code as soon as it is activated. He reported that the citizens started calling him on the Independence Day to find out the new code of the new Republic.

The undersecretary in the ministry, Engineer Juma Stephen Lugga explained that the ITU will issue an operation bulletin to all the international community announcing the activation of the new code. With that the country will desist from using 249 and migrate to the new code forthwith.

The minister also announced that the country’s top level domain will also be issued soon. He reported that the ministry has applied for .ss and are confident that it will be issued in due course.

The press briefing was attended by other senior ministry officers, telecommunications network operators and journalists from local and international media houses.

Republic of South Sudan gets new country code

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