Mobile numbers may be 11-digit by 2010: India

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.