Adding ‘0’ Compulsory For Calling A Mobile Number From Landline Phone: Find Out Why?

It’s a heads up for all landline users in India. The Department of Telecommunications has released a directive making it mandatory to use the prefix “0” to make calls to mobile phones from a landline. This update has been put on action from 15 January itself. 

DoT has asked the telecom operators to start informing their subscribers about the change. Jio and Airtel have already started doing so.

Reason For Issuing This Order

Last year, the DoT issued an order named “Modification of dialing patterns from fixed line numbers to cellular mobile numbers” on 20 November. The reason behind this was to ensure that the number of available resources for landline and mobile users is sufficient. With an addition of “0” in the start, a total of 2539 million series of numbers will be produced guaranteeing adequate numbering resources. 

After DoT’s proposal, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology circulated a notice announcing 15 January 2021 as the date for implementation of this new rule. This means from 15 January, any landline calls to mobile phone numbers without a prefix “0” wont even connect.

However, there is no need to use the prefix in case of landline-to-landline, mobile-to-landline, and mobile-to-mobile calls.

Making Landline Users Informed

As of October 2020, there are a total 20 million landline users in India. The telecommunications department has ordered the telecom operators offering fixed line service to make the users aware of the change. As suggested by the DoT the best way to do this is to play an announcement before disconnecting a call from landline to mobile without a “0” prefix.

Firstly, the telcos will have to allow their customers to dial “0” while making landline calls. Airtel and Jio were the first to start complying with the rules by informing their landline subscribers. BSNL, Vodafone Idea and other telecom operators will have to join them 

According to older reports, a recommendation given by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in May gave the idea for this recent modification. The “0” prefix was used even earlier but just for phone calls that crossed the service area. All the calls from fixed number to mobile number within the service area were possible even with the prefix.