The telephone number is based loosely off of the NIN. This is intended to make it easier for the subscriber to remember their telephone number(s). The NIN is 11 digits long, but the telephone number is 12 digits long. This allows each subscriber to have a maximum of 10 telephone numbers to their account. If they were to open an account for a business, then that legitimate business will be required to have a Business ID Number which is equivalent to a person’s NIN number. The numbers will have some rules. The subscriber must define which line will be a fax line. This is because the fax line will always end in 0. Voice Lines, voicemail lines, and pagers will end in a range of 1-9.
Let’s look at an example. Let’s assume Frank whose NIN is 520-2255-4377 wishes to have a fax line, a cellular line, a pager line, and a home phone line. Ka-Tel will likely provide the following numbers:
- 520225543770: Fax
- 520225543771: Pager
- 520225543772: Home Line
- 520225543773: Cellular line
If Frank was to decide that he wanted another cellular phone line for whatever the reason, then his new cellular number will be 520225543774. This can progress as high as the last digit being a 9. This could mean that he could have a private phone number for maybe a second residence. He has up to 1 fax line, and 9 telephone lines. There isn’t much of a reason to why someone would need more than 9 voice lines, and more than 1 fax line as a personal subscriber. Any numbers with no service on it will automatically be a voicemail number. Therefore someone calling 520225543779 will go straight to voicemail until there is active service on that number.