€1.6bn cost to add digit to phone numbers amid fears Ireland will run out of numbers

The telecommunications regulator is to consider a range of “conservation” measures to avoid having to add extra digits to mobile and landline phone numbers which could cost more than €1.65 billion.

Growth in the allocation of mobile numbers has raised fears that the current availability of the 08X-prefix numbers will be exhausted within a few years.

Similar concerns have been raised that the problem will also affect landline numbers.