From today, two short numbers beginning with 116 are being made available. Institutions or bodies which wish to do so can apply for allocation of a number and use it in future to provide telephone support and assistance services. Applicants have until 2 July 2009 to submit their candidature to obtain 116111 or 116123.

The 116111 number is reserved for a childline assistance number, the equivalent of the Swiss 147 number. As for 116123, this number can be used to provide moral support of the type offered by the Swiss "Main tendue [Samaritans]" association on 143.

If several interested parties submit an application for the same number, they will have to enter into negotiations for joint use. To ensure that the procedure runs smoothly and to evaluate applications, OFCOM may have recourse to independent experts or other authorities.

In the first stage, these resources will be allocated provisionally, until the entry into force – in the course of 20 10 – of the amendment to art. 31b of the ordinance on addressing resources in the telecommunications sector, which lays down the conditions of use for numbers beginning with 116.

European rules

The European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT), to which Switzerland belongs, decided in 2004 to reserve the range of numbers starting with 116 for harmonised European numbers of services of social value. In 2007, the European Commission designated the first services and numbers of this type, a decision which was restated by the CEPT that same year. In this way the foundations were laid to enable the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) to allocate these numbers in Switzerland.

States cannot allocate on their own initiative numbers other than those defined by the European Commission and the CEPT.

New telephone support numbers