Kolkata: Come January 15, all landline users across India will need to prefix a ‘0’ to make outgoing calls to any mobile number, in line with a Department of Telecommunications (DoT) directive.
Bharti Airtel on Wednesday informed customers that “effective January 15, it would be “mandatory to prefix `0’ before the mobile number while dialling from a landline," as per a DoT directive. Vodafone Idea, Reliance Jio, state-run BSNL and MTNL are likely to do the same.
The telcos didn't respond to ET's emailed queries.Last November, the communications ministry had issued a circular, saying all fixed line-to-mobile calls would be dialled with a prefix ‘0’ from January 15, 2021, though there would be no changes in the dialling plan for fixed-to-fixed, mobile-to-fixed and mobile-to-mobile calls.
It had also then directed telcos to ensure suitable auto-announcements are fed into all fixed-line switches to remind landline users to pre-fix any calls to a mobile number with a ‘0,’ should they forget.
The DoT expects the change in the landline-to-mobile call dialling plan to free up sufficient numbering resources for mobile services amid the continued rise in India's mobile user base and fall in wireline connections. The government expects roughly 2,539 million numbering series to be generated, which will be beneficial to mobile customers at large.
Last May, the telecom regulator had recommended to the DoT that all calls from fixed-lines to mobiles numbers be pre-fixed with a ‘0’, saying such a move would generate a whopping 2,544 million additional numbering resources for mobile services.
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