The number four furore: Hong Kong's mobile operators at odds over whether to include 'unlucky' digit in new round of phone numbers

An extra 15.7 million eight-digit mobile-phone numbers may be released by next year, meaning Hongkongers might soon have numbers starting with the ominous digit four, as well as seven and lucky number eight.

The Office of the Communications Authority launched a two-month public consultation on the matter yesterday, and proposed using new prefixes and recycling old numbers to generate extra mobile-phone numbers.

Among the five measures proposed, the watchdog said reallocating numbers starting with four was the most effective, as 5.6 million numbers could be released to meet demand for 42 months.

That idea, however, was not welcomed by operators or subscribers because the number "four" in Cantonese sounds similar to the word for death. So seriously is the tradition taken that some developers exclude floors with the number from buildings.

"How could we promote and sell those numbers? Four is a taboo in Chinese culture," one of the operators said.

The authority's spokesman admitted operators had complained about the idea, but said the number should be used.

"Nowadays people use smartphones and don't memorise phone numbers anyway. So what's the big deal with digit four?"