Starting last week, Guangdong Mobile has been issuing mobile phone numbers with the 159 prefix to users across the province.

Li Xinze, general manager of Guangdong Mobile's Marketing Department, says these new numbers would be issued to consumers of the four major services of Guangdong Mobile: Gotone, Shenzhouxing, M-Zone and Dazhong.

Li says that Guangdong Mobile has received the numbers from its parent company China Mobile, who will issue more numbers in schedules to mobile phone operators like Guangdong Mobile. Li predicts that Guangdong Mobile will be given 10 million such numbers this year.

The release of the new numbers is expected to help alleviate the shortage of mobile phone number resources.