MOSCOW, August 24 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's capital and its surrounding region will get new area codes this December, an IT and Communications Ministry official said Wednesday.
Starting Dec. 1, Moscow will swap its former 095 area code in for the new 495. The Moscow region will switch its area code from 096 to 496, Vitaly Slizen said.
The switch will also affect the intercity codes of 19 regions, who will trade in the zeros in the beginning of their codes for fours.
The change is being effected to make way for new intercity-access and national trunk access codes, "0" and "00", that will be introduced later, Slizen said.
