Landline users will soon be required to add ‘0’ prefix for making calls to mobile phones in the country,  as The Department of Telecom has accepted sectoral regulator Trai’s recommendation for having the ‘0’ prefix for such calls, a move that will create sufficient numbering space for telecom services.
The telecom department has asked telcos to make necessary arrangements by January 1 to implement the new system. The Department of Telecom (DoT) in a circular on `modification of dialling pattern from fixed line numbers to cellular mobile numbers’ said in order to ensure adequate numbering resources for fixed-line and mobile services, Trai’s recommendations dated May 29, 2020, have been accepted by the Department.
“Following may be implemented…Fixed-to-mobile calls shall be dialled with the prefix ‘0’. The suitable announcement may be fed in the fixed-line switches to apprise the fixed-line subscribers about the requirement of dialling the prefix ‘0’ for all fixed-to-mobile calls,” DoT said in a circular dated November 20. This announcement should be played whenever a subscriber dials a fixed-to-mobile call without prefixing ‘0’, it said.
“All the fixed-line subscribers should be provided with `0′ dialling facility, that is, STD dialling facility,” reads the circular.
“Compliance of the same may be intimated,” DoT said.