Landlines users in India will now have to add the prefix '0' if they are dialing any mobile number in the country from January 15. This statement has been issued by the Ministry of Communications during an official release on Wednesday.
According to the department, it has accepted sectoral regulator TRAI's recommendation for setting up '0' as a prefix to dial mobile numbers from a landline as it will create sufficient numbering space for telecom services.
It has been further added by the ministry that dialing plan from fixed to fixed, mobile to fixed, and mobile to mobile calls would not see any change.
A suitable announcement will be made for the same, the ministry added. This announcement, however, would play whenever a subscriber would dial a fixed to mobile call without adding the prefix '0.'
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It is being expected from the above plan that a total of as many as 2.539 million numbering series would be generated which will free up sufficient numbering resources for future use that would allow more connections to make it to the list.
Earlier in May, Trai had recommended dialing prefix '0' for a call from fixed line number to a mobile number. However, the regulator made it clear that dialing a prefix for a specific call is not designed to increase the number of digits in the telephone number.