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Trai plan on number series gets govt nod
December 30, 2003 21:20 IST
Last Updated: December 30, 2003 21:21 IST
The government has accepted the telecom regulator's proposal for change in numbering scheme for mobile phones, and is likely to allot '93' series to Reliance and '97' series to the Tatas.
"We have agreed to Trai's proposal for change in numbering and have decided that a 30-day period should be given to operators to switch over to the new numbering scheme," telecom secretary Vinod Vaish told PTI.
As per the scheme, Bharti would be given '92' series, while the smaller players would remain in the '98' series, sources added.
"The numbering scheme is a big exercise and every operator has to be given an MSC code for each circle; we are working out the details and the decision would be announced tomorrow," Vaish said.
He said Bharti and Tatas had sought a separate second numbering scheme, and the allotment was a result of that request.
Trai had, last week, recommended a 10-digit numbering scheme on level 9 for limited mobility phones going fully mobile.
Trai had said that based on the principle of level playing field, all fully mobile cellular service, irrespective of technology deployed, should be treated at par as far as numbering scheme was concerned.
Numbering scheme for full mobility provided by the existing basic service operators who had migrated to unified access service licence should be at the same level as that of GSM cellular users, the regulator had recommended.
Trai had suggested that for CDMA mobile and GSM mobile services, 10-digit National Significant Number would have nine as full mobility access code, the second digit as mobile operator code, followed by Mobile Switching Centre codes.