Dial at ease

New Delhi, Dec. 31: Reliance and Tata are preparing to migrate to 10-digit mobile numbers from February next year with the least possible hassles for customers and their friends and relatives who call them.

Four telecom companies — Reliance, Tata Telecom, Shyam Telecom and Himachal Futuristic Communications (HFCL) — have been allowed to offer full-scale mobility services. The eight-digit mobile numbers of these customers will carry a two-digit prefix from February.

However, there will be no change in the mobile numbers of existing mobile service providers and customers using the global system for mobile communications (GSM) technology and also for those who are offering only limited mobile service.

“We are yet to get official communications, but we will not let our customers suffer nor those wishing to contact them. There may be a few initial hiccups but we hope everyone will co-operate. We have different ways to inform the subscribers like short message service, advertisement in both electronic and print and also R-World which will be very informative,” Reliance Infocomm head of corporate communications Jimmy Modgal said.

“We all have an experience of going through this exercise when the number 2 was prefixed before the land-line numbers of telecom companies. It will not be a problem now,” said Modgal.

A senior Tata executive said, “The migration to a 10-digit number will be a smooth affair. We do not expect any hitch since there is enough time to inform our customers. It will be done through mailers, SMS, in the bills and also on our website. The voice mail too will be brought in for those calling our subscribers.”

Both Reliance and Tata executives said the change in software can be completed in 10 days but it would need a trial period of minimum 15 days to study its performance. The other two operators — Shyam Telecom and HFCL — are also in the process of implementing the software and expect no major problems in migrating to 10-digit numbers.

Currently, Reliance mobile subscribers carry an eight digit (limited) mobile number prefixed with 33, while Tata prefixes its mobile numbers with 56, Shyam (51) in Rajasthan and HFCL (51) in Punjab.

On Tuesday, the government said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's recommendations to the communications ministry that those limited mobile operators who had migrated to the unified access services licence (UASL) would have 10-digit mobile numbers starting with the digit ‘9’.

The regulator had suggested that all unified access licensees should be directed to implement the numbering changes within 15 days from the date of acceptance of Trai recommendations. However, the government has given operators an additional 15 days to implement the new scheme.

Currently, the full mobility access code for GSM (cellular) operators is ‘98’. The next three digits, for example ‘100’ after ‘98’ denotes Bharti in Delhi or ‘310’ refers to Calcutta. The last five digit like ‘00001’ is the number given by the service provider to the customer.

Feb date for IUC

Trai today deferred the implementation of new interconnect charges (IUC) regime till February 1 to coincide it with fresh numbering scheme for various mobile services, says PTI.