CDMA, GSM Mobile Phones to Have 11 Digit Numbers soon..

The Department of Telecom (DoT) have decided to add 1 more digit to the existing CDMA and GSM network mobile phones.

Already different Number series, have been issued by the each Service provider along with their 10-digit number which is already a large number to remember
DoT is thinking of adding one more digit to the already existing 10-digit number.

To implement this DoT will prefer to add "9" before all numbers which are currently existed and for the new numbers they will get the 11 digit numbers from their service provider, DoT were mulling over this thing for quite some time.

Interestingly, in 2003 National Numbering Plan (NNP) of DoT had said, "When subscriber base in an SDCA (short distance charging area, or a circle in common parlance) expands beyond 4 crore, changeover from 10-digit to 11-digit may be required. However, this scenario is not envisaged almost for another 30 years."

Currently, China and UK are the two countries where their Mobile phone number is of 11-digit.

According to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)has announce that, India's total wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA & WLL(F)) base was recorded to be 375.74 million at the end of February 2009.

Before causing anymore blunder in the Indian Telecom industry, TRAI should realize that they are here for our convenience not to cause disturbances. Stop doing experiments. It's a matter of 350 million users. An estimated 20 million man/month will be collectively required to clear up this mess. Billions of cards and brochures have to be reprinted. Big numbers will be ugly and confusing. Lastly, the telecom companies had raised more than 12 thousand crores by selling special numbers to the corporates, professionals and individuals. TRAI should arrange to refund the full amount with interest because while issuing the numbers people were promised of 30 years of usage.

Well, I would have appreciated if they would have introduced a new series of numbers....that's OK. If they wanted to alter the number of digits(size), they should have reduced them to 8-9 digits. But this increase in the phone number digits will cause a heck in the minds of million people to save such a long numbers.