Mobile numbers may be 11-digit by 2010: India
April 4th, 2009 by Kunal
Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC) has forwarded a recommendation to the government to add an extra digit to the mobile numbers. According to TRAI, around 8 million subscribers are added to the mobile industry every month and by 2010 India will reach 500 million subscribers. Hence there will be a need to implement a new numbering scheme.
DoT came up with the current numbering system in 2003 expecting that there will not be any need for new numbering scheme for next 30 years. But, the unexpected growth in the telecom industry is forcing the government to implement a new numbering scheme by next two years.
There will not be any changes in the 8 digit fixed line numbers. “TEC did not think that there is any necessity to change the 8-digit fixed line numbers. As the growth of fixed lines is slow, there is no need to move it to the higher level” , said T. N. Prabhakar, member of TRAI. He also recommended that the 11 digit mobile numbers begin with ‘99..’.
The telecom operators will only have to make changes in the software for the new numbering scheme. But, the telecom industry needs time to change and understand the implications of the new numbering scheme. “A number of changes may have different levels of impact on the operation. It is difficult to guess unless we start the work. Hopefully, DoT will provide the required time to complete the up-gradation job” , said Pankaj Chaturvedi, associate vice president of Aircel Business Solutions.
For the customers, an extra ‘9′ before their mobile numbers won’t make much of a difference. But a good amount of time will have to be spent for the changes in your phonebook.
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Categories: Tech Industry News | Tags: cell nos, cellphones, india cellphone industry, smartphone boom, trai
Shocking!!! How about the expensive numbers sold to us by the telecom companies? Is it delibarate?
[...] With a total of 415 million cellphone connections India is the fastest growing mobile market globally. Just a year back this number was at 277 million. Such growth comes with its own side effects. Having exhausted the 9 series, mobile operators in India are all set to issue mobile connections beginning with ‘8′. Janta would surely find this weird, having being accustomed to mobile nos starting with no 9 for over 10 years now. But this would still be better than 11 digit mobile nos that will might slip in 2010. [...]