The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on May 29, 2020 recommended that a new National Numbering Plan (NNP) be issued for fixed line and mobile networks in order to meet the expected growth in the subscriber base assuming India’s population will surpass 1.6 billion by 2050. Under this plan, a uniquely identifiable number will be provided to every subscriber in India.
Some of the recommendations of TRAI are:
- Switching to a 11-digit mobile number,
- Reallocation of mobile numbering resources surrendered by operators who have shut shop and prefixing zero for all mobile calls made from fixed line. Government should, every year, enlist all newly allocated numbering resources for fixed line as well as mobile services. The ongoing plan implemented in 2003, was developed keeping in mind the projections till the year 2033.
- Make all calls from fixed line to mobile phones should be prefixed with a ‘0’ on dialling, and also asked the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to reallocate numbering resources surrendered by operators that have shut down.
- All the SIM-based machine-to-machine connections using 10-digit series should be shifted to the 13-digit series allocated by DoT for this communication.
- Changes to codes for short-distance charging areas, which are telecom areas smaller than the size of a district.
- Make some policy decisions to ensure that adequate resources are available for sustainable growth of the telecommunication services.
The total number of telephone subscribers in India stands at 1,177.02 million with a tele-density of 87.45% at the end of January 2020.
