TRAI says 10-digit mobile numbers to continue, 11-digit numbers not recommended

Recently it was reported that TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) was considering introducing 11-digit long mobile numbers in India as a recommendation on “Ensuring Adequate Numbering Resources for Fixed Line and Mobile Services”. But it looks like that is not the case anymore.According to reports, TRAI is no more recommending the use of 11-digit mobile numbers but it does suggest prefixing ‘0’ while calling from fixed landlines to mobile numbers.

“Trai has not recommended 11-digit numbering scheme for mobile services,” the TRAI said in a statement. TRAI adds that prefixing ‘0’ when calling from landlines to mobile numbers will generate more than 2,500 million new numbering resources.

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At present, inter-service area mobile calls from a fixed line connection can be accessed by a dialing ‘0 in the prefix’. However, mobile phones can be accessed from a fixed line phone without using ‘0’ in the prefix. This, as TRAI explains, puts a “limitation that any digit which has been used as a first digit for a fixed network (for local calls) cannot be used for mobile numbers”.

“By making it mandatory to access mobile numbers in a service area from a fixed network by dialing prefix ‘0’, all the free sub-levels in levels ‘2’, ‘3’, ‘4’, and ‘6’, can also be used for mobile numbers,” TRAI wrote in its recommendations on Friday.

Additionally, TRAI recommended shifting mobile numbers used for dongles from 10 digits to 13 digits. Besides this, TRAI recommended that a new National Numbering Plan (NNP) should be issued at the earliest.