If you know last year TRAI had announced that it will introduce 11 digit mobile numbers, as India is expected to run out of existing ones in less than 2 years time. TRAI had never expected that it will witness such meteoric Mobile subscriber growth. The numbers which were supposed to last till 2030 (as per their planning) are nearing exhaustion 20 years earlier than expected.
So now, instead of 11 Digit Mobile numbers, TRAI is proposing to retain the 10 digit format of mobile numbers, but Instead of mobile numbers starting from just 9 & 8, it will open up all the number segments starting from 2 to 9.
The side-effect of this would be that, all the existing landline numbers which are currently 7, 8 or 9 digits will all be converted into 10 digits. I think this is a very wise move, especially because landline numbers form less than 10% of all the phone numbers. Instead of changing 500+ million mobile numbers into 11 digits, its better to change minority landline numbers !
Currently, TRAI is in consultation process for this plan and seeking Telecom Industry’s reaction before actually implementing this process.
TRAI proposal will open up all levels except numbers beginning with the digit ‘1’, which the regulator wants to reserve for emergency services, toll free numbers and for government-related issues. If the levels, say ‘7’ and ‘8’ are opened up and allotted to mobile operators, this will increase the mobile numbering resources by an additional 2 billion. [source]
I think better sense has prevailed by retaining 10 digit universal format for landline as well as mobile numbers instead of going for 11 digit numbers. Whats your take?
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Author: Arun Prabhudesai
Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin or get in touch with him at admin-at-trak-dot-in or 91.9822575676.Related posts:
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree that it would be a big inconvenience to change 500M+ mobile numbers and that way changing landline numbers makes sense… but just thinking from a ‘brand building’ perspective having 11 digit where world has 10 would be a indicator that our economy is an order of magnitude bigger !!
Does it make a difference now…if the numbers are 10 digit or 11 digit long. No one has to remember those numbers. Both would be stored in mobile phone contact lists and used from there directly. :)
Exactly, these changes will never affect the consumers, but its nice to see that 7 and 8 alone can increase the numbering resources by 2 billion.
This would take a lot of maths to calculate!!
Hi Arun,
As you say it is better to make the landline no’s 10 digit, rather than adding a digit to Mobile no’s. Again i dont feel there is much of a change wrt the switching system also. Only thing is it will be centralized throughout India, similar to how mobiles operate these days.
Nayan
Majorities are getting priorities in commercial area, but not in democracy.