[Satellite Today 12-08-08] Inmarsat will switch to a single dialling code, +870, for all its services by the end of 2008 as part of its One World, One Number project, the company said Dec. 5.
    On Dec. 31, under an agreement with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the governing body of country codes, Inmarsat will hand back the four ocean region codes used for its services since operations began in 1982. These codes —871, 872, 873 and 874 — will no longer used when calling an Inmarsat terminal from a terrestrial phone.
    Inmarsat exec, Chris Wortham, who is in charge of the project commented, “This change is at the request of the ITU, but it will make life easier for anyone wishing to contact an Inmarsat terminal. If you call an Inmarsat terminal onboard a vessel, for instance, you no longer need to know in which ocean region it is sailing. Across all our services, +870 will become the standard Inmarsat dialing code.”