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Telephone numbers in the country will be put into a 10-digit system by November to cope with the growth of telecom networks and introduction of value added services.

These new services are putting pressures on the existing system that can produce only a billion numbers.

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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is preparing the new numbering plan in consultation with the Department of Telecommunications and private operators.

The new system will ensure that no number changes for another three decades besides accommodating value added services such as cellular, land mobile, domestic and global satellite mobile, manual and automatic paging and private networks.

According to the new number proposals, subscriber trunk dial codes all over the county would change from the existing two-digit system to a three-digit one.

For instance, 044, representing Madras, is proposed to be changed to 0444. 033 for Calcutta would become 0233. And Bangalore would become 0488 instead of 088.

It has been proposed that subscribers' fixed phone numbers would start with digits such as '2', '3', '4' and '5', while mobile and paging would begin with digit '9'.

Value added tariff and multimedia services and 'free-phone' would begin with digit '8'. Digit '7' would be reserved for a universal personal numbering scheme.

'6' has been kept as spare for use in unforeseen circumstances and digit '1' has been reserved for exclusive services like the all-India special service code.

The proposed system would have a capacity of 400 to 500 million numbers for fixed phones, 100 million for public phones, 150 million for mobile and paging and another 100 million for other services.

A TRAI document says the new system has been planned since no spare space is available for new services in the existing system, 95 per cent of which has been either utilised or reserved for fixed phones.

In spite of these, fixed phone numbering is getting congested and number spaces are becoming inadequate for growing cities like Kanpur, Pune and Lucknow.

Since allocating two trunk codes for an area is unpopular a new system is the only way out the TRAI document claimed adding that the new system would also leave enough space for unforeseen new service and contingencies.

However, there may not be any change in the India code '91' since such a change requires certification form the International Telecommunications Union.

- Compiled from the Indian media

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