It seems that 11-digit phone numbers are not enough in Japan.
Japan plans to issue 14-digit numbers by 2021, responding to reports that the country may run out of 11-digit phone numbers by 2022.
The rapid adoption of IoT devices (which require their own telephone number in Japan) has almost exhausted the offer of 11-digit telephone numbers according with the Japan Times. The use of 5G in Japan from 2020 is expected to completely terminate the existing telephone numbers.
Japan's communications ministry's proposal to roll out 14-digit numbers has been accepted by the country's three major mobile operators: NTT Docomo Inc., KDDI Corp. and Softbank Corp.
Currently, there are 11 digit numbers starting with “090”, “080” and “070” used on mobiles phones In Japan. In 2017, 80 were allocated millions 11-digit numbers from “020” for IoT devices, of which almost half of the phone numbers are sold out.
Japan probably will not be the only country facing the problem of needing more phone numbers to service more devices.
Last year, the number of IoT devices in the world exceeded the number of mobile phones. Since 2008, there are more connected devices on the planet by population, and by 2020 it is predicted that there will be 50 billion connected devices worldwide.
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