From January 15, people making calls from landline to mobile phone will have to prefix the number with “0”.
The move, in line with the recommendations by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, is expected to free up sufficient numbering resources for future use.
The department of telecom said: “All fixed to mobile calls will be dialed with prefix ‘0’ from 15th January, 2021…There will be no change in dialing plan from fixed to fixed, mobile to fixed and mobile to mobile calls.”
The step is expected to free up around 2,539 million numbering series for future use, which will help in adding more connections in future.
The DoT said: “The… changes have been done in order to have minimum inconvenience to the subscribers and free up essential numbering resources.”
A statement from the ministry said a suitable announcement would be fed in the fixed line switches for the same. “This announcement shall be played whenever a subscriber dials a fixed to mobile call without prefixing ‘0’,” it said.
