With about 50% of Indians expected to be connected in the next two years, the government and the telecom regulator are busy finding out whether your present mobile numbers will remain unchanged or not. They need to come up with a plan soon.
The current numbering plan was put in place in 2003 to cater for a total of 750 million subscribers (300 million basic and 450 million mobile) until 2030. But, with the subscriber base growing fast, the total number of connections is likely to exceed 500 million by 2010 and cross 750 million in a few years thereafter, much before 2030.
At stake are the investments made by the telecom companies to develop the current numbering plan because a reworked system could mean mobile numbers going beyond ten digits. The issue has been compounded by developments like the next-generation network (NGN) and the voice over Internet protocol (VOIP).
In fact, the target of 250 million connections by December 2007 was achieved two months ahead of schedule. Currently, India has a total of 272.8 million subscribers. Of them, 233.63 million have wireless connections and 39.25, wireline.
Highlighting the need to review the numbering plan ahead of time, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India chairman Nripendra Misra has written to the department of telecommunications secretary, Siddhartha Behura. ?It is unlikely that the current plan would be able to serve properly for the envisaged period. Besides the accelerated growth, many other developments like NGN and VOIP that have gained momentum after 2003 might necessitate a thorough re-examination of the numbering plan. I must mention that it is also extremely important to address issues like efficiency of utilisation of allocated numbers and their pricing,? wrote Misra.