Mobile numbers to become 11-Digit in India by 2013

Mobile subscribers in India will soon have 11-Digit mobile numbers as India is bound to experience number crisis by next year.According to The Times of India report “All the phone number series which are currently in use is nearing an end”.

Rajan Mathews, director general of the COAI said, 

 “There might be a serious problem if a new series of numbers are not brought in by the middle of next year. We are theoretically reaching the limit of existing number sets with a subscriber base of one billion.”

Every operator is allotted a unique range of numbers.The first two digits are associated with the operator.

Sandip Biswas, director at consultancy firm Deloitte said, “None of these number ranges can be used to their full extent due to the way in which they are allotted. Only a certain portion of these numbers are used as phone numbers. This is called percentage of numbering system utilization and it hovers around 50 percent, meaning only around half or more of the potential numbers are used as phone numbers.the numbers will have to be increased by at least one digit to accommodate new devices. However, to ensure there’s absolutely no scope for any problem, we may even see the introduction of 12 digit numbers.”