Malaysia and Singapore have shared close ties that calling across the border was as easy as making an interstate call. If you’ve been making lots of calls from Malaysia to Singapore, you might need to update your phonebooks very soon.
According to TM, calls to Singapore using the 02 access code will be realigned to the international access code of 0065 effective 16 May 2017. That means if you’re calling from a landline, you’ll need to dial 0065-XXXXXXXX instead of 02-XXXXXXXX.
For customers on TM Unifi, Telephony, Streamyx, Centrex and Multi-Line SIP, you can make 0065 calls without having to activate IDD. However, those on ISDN PRI/BRI and CDMA lines would need to activate IDD to make calls to Singapore via the 0065 access code.
According to TM, this new directive comes from MCMC and it is likely that all other operators would need to comply to this realignment exercise. Despite the change of access code, all call rates and service quality would remain the same.
Over at Singapore, they have dropped direct calls to Malaysia (e.g. dial 03 XXXX XXXX for KL/Selangor) since 1995 and all providers were required to dial a STD (Subscriber Trunk Dialing) prefix of 020. Apart from Singtel, calls from Singapore to Malaysia today would require the full 0060 (+60) IDD prefix.
Thanks Vinothan for the tip!
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