On 31 March 2012 Moldova will shift to a closed numbering plan, the Communications Agency (ANRCETI) announced in a press release, quoted by Info-Prim Neo, Under this plan, there will be two codes for each municipality or district: the existing one – in the 2 range, and a new one – in the 3 range. For example, Chisinau municipality will have the codes 22 and 32; Balti 231 and 331; Briceni 247 and 347; and Cahul 299 and 399. With the 3 range introduced, had Moldova maintained an 'open' numbering plan, the way of dialing numbers in the 2 and 3 ranges would have differed: one would have needed to dial 5 or 6 digits for numbers in the 2 range and 9 digits in the 3 range. Thus, the new plan equals the length of all numbers in both ranges. The introduction of the closed plan is due to the rapidly growing demand for numbers in the 2 range from triple-play service providers (that is, television, internet and telephony). In 11 months alone, in Chisinau and Balti there were requested more than 37,000 new numbers, and ANRCETI expects that this tendency will continue in the next few years as well. Since the numbers in the 2 range are about to be exhausted, the necessity appeared to allocate geographic numbers in the 3 range as well. This will enable ANRCETI to make available about 8 million new numbers to providers. Such closed dial plans are also used in many European countries, including Italy, Romania, Latvia, Estonia and others.