There, they outgrew both 077 and 076. Dialog now has so many users that they have obtained part of the 074 xx number range for their customers. You can get a new connection starting with this prefix for Rs. 150.
Only the 0740 and 0741 number ranges have been granted to Dialog so far, going through 0740 000 000 to 0741 999 999. The rest of the 074 range (between 0742 to 0749 999 999) remain unallocated for the moment.
With the 077 and 076 ranges, Dialog already has 20 million combinations under their belt. With these new ranges, that value increases by another 2 million, giving Dialog a total allocation of 22 million numbers. That’s more than the entire population of the little island nation. I daresay it’s the teenagers using multiple sims.
With the proposed Number Portability features right around the corner, the prefix will not matter much in the future. But we can’t deny that old 077 numbers hold some sentimental value, at least for some of us. Plus, implementing Number Portability is a mammoth task. Even in countries like Singapore (where the facility has been available since 1997), carriers still face issues when letting customers switch between each other. So, it’ll probably be a couple of years before we are able to switch between carriers without any hassle.
(Via Android Wedakarayo)