New TRAI recommendations to streamline national numbering plan, boost telecom services
Govt recommendations on revising the national numbering plan aim to ensure universal accessibility and reliable telecommunication services. TIs uniquely identify users, services, networks, and entities. Based on stakeholder consultations, TRAI finalized recommendations with no additional charges on numbering resources. The DoT will monitor annual usage and may withdraw unutilized resources. Fixed-line calls will now require dialing ‘0’ plus STD code and number, while mobile patterns remain unchanged
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New Delhi: The government on Thursday issued recommendations on the revision of national numbering plan to ensure universal accessibility and reliable delivery of telecommunication services to consumers, businesses and industries. Telecommunication Identifiers (TIs) or numbering resources are used to uniquely identify a telecom user, service, network elements, equipment, or an authorised entity.
In today’s interconnected digital landscape, where billions of devices and users are required to be addressed, sufficient availability and efficient utilisation of numbering resources (TIs) are essential, said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Based on the comments received from the stakeholders during the consultation process, the telecom authority has finalised recommendations on ‘Revision of National Numbering Plan’.
According to it, no additional charge or financial disincentive on numbering resources has been recommended at this stage. “DoT will monitor the annual usage of numbering resources allocated to TSPs and if required, may withdraw unutilised numbering resources,” according to the recommendations.
To address numbering resource constraints in fixed-line services, the users will dial all fixed-line to fixed-line calls using a prefix of '0', followed by the STD code and the subscriber number. “The dialling pattern for fixed-to-mobile, mobile-to-fixed, and mobile-to-mobile calls will remain unchanged. Existing subscriber numbers remain unchanged. It will take six months to implement the new numbering scheme,” according to the TRAI.
Post implementation of the License Service Area (LSA)-based 10-digit closed numbering scheme, a 10-digit fixed-line numbering scheme using a Fixed-line Location Routing Number (FLRN) code should be adopted within a maximum period of five years, resulting in nationwide availability of LSA-based numbering resources.
DoT will implement TRAI recommendations on ‘Introduction of Calling Name Presentation (CNAP) service in Indian Telecommunication Network’ at the earliest, including expeditious implementation of CNAP supplementary services for all SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) and PRI (Primary Rate Interface) calls terminating on mobile networks.
To stop CLI (call line identification) spoofing and tampering, the CLI Authentication framework and Distributed Certification Authority framework should be implemented in accordance with ITU recommendations, respectively.
“No mobile or fixed-line connections shall be deactivated by the TSPs until 90 days of the non-usage period expires. All mobile and fixed-line connections that remain inactive due to non-usage shall be mandatorily deactivated by the TSPs after 365 days post-expiration of 90 days of the non-usage period,” said the TRAI in its recommendations.
