The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), has confirmed it has assigned a Central Office Code under Jamaica’s new area code, 658.

The Central Office Code is the first three digits which are dialled after the area code when placing a phone call.

The OUR says the recent assignment became necessary as it ran out of telephone numbers to issue under the 876 area code and it has been made available to telecommunications service providers for distribution when needed.

However, this is once it is all used up.

Meanwhile, the regulatory office says the last seven digits of the new telephone numbers may match the last seven digits of numbers previously assigned by operators under the 876 area code.

It contains 10 thousand numbers.