Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 7) — The migration of landline customers to an eight-digit telephone number format has been moved to October.

In a public advisory Wednesday, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said the migration will be moved from March 18 to October 6.

Starting October 6, subscribers of Globe Telecom will add an identifier of 7, while those of PLDT will add an identifier of 8 before dialing the existing seven-digit landline number.

Globe and PLDT subscribers in Metro Manila, Rizal Province, San Pedro in Laguna, and Bacoor in Cavite will be affected by the migration.

NTC said the Bankers Association of the Philippines and Credit Card Association of the Philippines filed petitions to defer the implementation. It granted the request to give banks and credit card companies sufficient time to implement the necessary operational and system adjustments.

The migration to eight-digit phone numbers is in compliance with the NTC memorandum 10-10-2017, which orders the change "to address the insufficient number of assignable exchange codes."