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St. Maarten gets country code 721
by The Daily Herald
Posted: Nov 5, 2009 10:52 UTC
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PHILIPSBURG - The Government of St. Maarten has been granted permission to be part of North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA) and has been assigned the country code 721. NANPA made the decision on September 30.
Introduction of the 721 code will begin with a period of permissive dialling from May 31, 2010, to November 30, 2010. During the permissive dialling period, the use of either the current country code 599 or the new 721 will be acceptable for calls terminating in St. Maarten.
After the permissive dialling period ends, all calls dialled with the incorrect country code will be routed to an intercept and a recorded message instructing callers to dial the correct country and area code (1-721) will be played.
The request to enter NANPA was made on September 11, 2007, under the former DP Executive Council and former commissioner of telecommunications Maria Buncamper-Molanus. The Minister of Telecommunications and Council of Ministers were notified immediately of St. Maarten’s quest to be admitted to NANPA.
“The fact that St. Maarten’s economy is based primarily on tourism, whereby approximately 59 per cent of stay-over visitors are from the North American market and more than 1,000,000 cruise visitors are from the same market justifies the importance of St. Maarten adapting the NANPA,” Buncamper-Molanus had said at the time.
According to Caribbean Association of National Telecommunication Organisations (CANTO), the benefit of being part of NANPA will be that visitors and businesses will be familiar with the dialling format. It will minimise confusion and misdialling, and will facilitate persons’ accessing telephone numbers and/or services that they used in their home country or island.
“For St. Maarten, it will give us a sense of integration within the Caribbean community, as well as the US and Canadian markets, access to new services which can generate more commerce and e-commerce, and the possibility of an increase in incoming calls from North American destinations,” Buncamper-Molanus said.
Current Commissioner in charge of Telecommunications William Marlin is on official business in the Netherlands and was not available for comment Tuesday.
NANPA explained that all domestic carriers should ensure that the 721 code is activated throughout their networks prior to May 31, 2010. A test number to verify the routing to the new code will be announced at a later date.
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