Your mobile number will start with ‘ 8′

If you happen to come across a mobile number starting with ‘8′, don’t mistake it for a typo. The department of telecommunications (DoT) has allowed four service providers to allot 10-digit numbers starting with ‘8′.

Reason: A swelling subscriber pool and an increasing number of service providers. Almost 15 years after mobile telephony came to India, the number of subscribers crossed 441 million in August-end, and is growing by 14 to 15 million every month.

Pre-empting a crunch, the DoT has allowed Vodafone Essar, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices and Reliance-ADAG (for CDMA and GSM services) to allot numbers beginning with ‘8′. Tata Teleservices has been given permission for the Mumbai circle.

In a 10-digit mobile number,
the first two numbers refer to the access code,
the next three to the mobile switching centre (MSC) code, and
the last five to the subscriber’s number.

Before allowing mobile numbers starting with ‘8′, the government was considering 11-digit numbers. But after discussions with telecos, the DoT formulated a framework that would cause minimum disturbance to existing mobile phone users.As per international norms, every mobile phone number in the country should have uniform number of digits. If it is to be an 11-digit format, all mobile numbers, irrespective of operator, will have to follow the same model.

The US is believed to have handled the problem better as it follows an integrated numbering plan for landline and mobile phones.