TRAI's new national numbering plan: Your landline calls may soon require a ‘0’ prefix

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Thursday issued its recommendations on the ‘Revision of National Numbering Plan’ to address constraints in numbering resources arising from rapid growth in telecommunications services.

The regulator has recommended that no additional charges or financial disincentives be imposed on numbering resources at this stage. However, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will monitor the annual usage of these resources and may withdraw unutilised numbering allocations from telecom service providers (TSPs) if necessary.

To address constraints in fixed-line services, TRAI has proposed migrating from the Short Distance Charging Area (SDCA)-based scheme to a License Service Area (LSA)-based 10-digit closed numbering system. This change is expected to unlock numbering resources currently restricted at the SDCA level.

As part of the new plan, all fixed-to-fixed calls will require the prefix '0', followed by the STD code and subscriber number, while the dialling pattern for fixed-to-mobile, mobile-to-fixed, and mobile-to-mobile calls will remain unchanged.

The existing subscriber numbers will not be affected.

The new numbering scheme is to be implemented within six months, with a further transition to a Fixed-line Location Routing Number (FLRN) code-based 10-digit scheme within five years. This would enable nationwide fixed-line number portability, similar to what is currently available for mobile networks.

TRAI has recommended the swift implementation of its earlier suggestions on the 'Introduction of Calling Name Presentation (CNAP) Service' dated February 23, 2024, to curb unsolicited commercial communications (UCC), spam calls, and Caller Line Identification (CLI) spoofing.

The telecom regulator has advised that no mobile or fixed-line connections should be deactivated until a non-usage period of 90 days has passed. All such inactive connections must be mandatorily deactivated after 365 days following this period, according to the regulator.

It confirmed that the current 13-digit Machine-to-Machine (M2M) numbering framework is sufficient to meet both present and future demands, and urged the DoT to expedite the migration of SIM-based M2M connections from the 10-digit mobile numbering series to the 13-digit format.

For Level-1 short codes, TRAI recommended that these be allocated exclusively to government entities and free of charge.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had sought TRAI's recommendations to address constraints in fixed-line numbering resources amid rapid growth, including its inputs on issues related to fixed-line numbering resources, shortcodes, Service Control Point (SCP) codes, National Signalling Point (SP) codes, Mobile Country Code-Mobile Network Code (MCC-MNC) for Captive Non-Public Networks (CNPN), Machine-to-Machine (M2M) numbering resources, Intelligent Network Services, and Number Portability Codes.