South Sudan's transition to establishing all the trappings of full independence and statehood is moving ahead rapidly.
The latest evidence of this came Friday when Zain, the mobile telephone company, launched its official switch from the old Sudanese 249 international dialing code to the new South Sudanese country code 211. Other phone companies will follow suit begin starting on Saturday.
The new code was granted to South Sudan by the International Telecommunications Corporation months before independence, but Friday's phone call by the Undersecretary in the Ministry of Telecommunications to his daughter in Australia marked the first time it has ever been used.
Please click on the link below to hear VOA’s Manyang David Mayar's report on the historic phone call.