Trai suggests new plan to free up, reallocate underutilized numbers

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Friday issued recommendations to free up underutilized numbering resources and re-allocate them for future needs.

In its recommendations issed on Friday, Trai suggested that all data-only use SIM cards used for dongles etc. must shift from 10-digit numbering to 13-digit numbering allocated by DoT (Department of Telecommunications) for M2M communication as these SIM cards are not used for voice calls.

The mobile numbering resources surrendered by operators who have closed down their wireless operations, may be re-allocated to those carriers in need.

Trai said that vacating sparingly used fixed line numbers for allocation to mobile services will disrupt the fixed line segment which will need large scale change in numbers. Moreover, the exercise will generate numbers for a few years only.

Thus, Trai has recommended that “sparingly used sub-levels in levels ‘2’, ‘3’, ‘4’, ‘5’, and ‘6’, may be withdrawn after seeking sub-level wise utilization from the operators providing fixed line services and can be used for future allocations.”

Further, all users must dial fixed to mobile calls with the prefix ‘0’ giving a time of 1 month for telcos to implement the scheme.

“After exhausting all the surrendered numbering resources, the existing SDCA codes starting with ‘6’, ‘3’, ‘4’, and ‘2’, may be used for mobile services by suffixing with ‘0’, ‘1’, ‘8’, and ‘9’. Initially, existing SDCA codes of level ‘6’ may be used followed by levels ‘3’, ‘4’, and ‘2’, successively,” Trai said.

To speed up allocation of numbering resources in a transparent manner, Trai has recommended DoT to introduce automated allocation using numbering management system software.

Migration to unified numbering scheme which requires large scale changes in network is not recommended at this stage, the regulator said.