A Unified Numbering Plan is in development, and TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has released few recommendations in connection to it. This development plan aims to provide adequate numbering resources for Fixed and mobile services in India. These plans would change the current phone numbers, where a ‘0’ needs to be added before calling a mobile number from Landline.
These recommendations are the result of the Open House Discussion (OHD) conducted with stakeholders in January. In the recommendations provided, there was a mention of switching from 10 to 11 digits for mobile numbers. The existing numbers would get a ‘0’ added before, and new numbers would be starting with different digits.
The following are the recommendations TRAI has listed out as a part of the Unified Numbering Plan:
- Adding ‘0’ as prefix while calling from a Landline connection to a mobile number is now mandatory. Previously, there was no need to add any prefix to cal from Landline to mobile numbers. It has to be noted that, there won’t be any change while calling Landline to Landline, Mobile to Landline and Mobile to Mobile.
- TRAI has recommended shifting from 10 to 11 digit mobile numbers for the mobile numbers start with ‘9’. Adding one digit would increase the capacity of numbers to 10 billion in India.
- Currently, dongles have 10-digit numbers, and as per TRAI’s new recommendation, dongles would get a 13-digit number. This adding of digits would add more scope of resources.
- TRAI, in another key recommendation, has stated that all the fixed-line connections need to be provided with a ‘0’ dialing facility. Currently, only STD users get the ‘0’ dialing facility, but from now, all the fixed-line connections are required to provide with ‘0’ dialing facility.
India has so far 1.2 billion telephone numbers, with a teledensity of 87.47%. There has been a rapid increase in both mobile and landline numbers. This recent regulations by TRAI would allow India to house adequate numbering resources.