Now Call pan-India Mobiles without Prefix ‘0’ (the zero goes out!)

DoT has been long pushing for Full Mobile Number Portability. One of the biggest constraints for rolling this service out was that mobile phone users in India would have to dial STD calls (for landlines) and Out of Circle calls (for mobiles) with a prefix of 0. 

Now, in full MNP, this would lead to a confusion if Jayesh from circle A moved to circle B, and some other caller, say Veena, from circle A had to call Jayesh. Veena would call Jayesh, normally without prefixing ‘0’, and Jayesh has already moved to circle B. So, in today’s world Veena would not have been able to get through to Jayesh without dialing ‘0’. This led to a classic Catch 22 for the roll-out.

Solution: The possible solution for this was that dialing in India be made simpler. Like for example in the United States of America. That is I just dial the number, without caring for any prefixes such as ‘0’s or ‘+<country IDD code>’.

DoT, recently did just that on 13th April, 2015 and simplified dialing for all of us. This is applicable for calls made to Mobile Numbers from landline (basic) or mobile numbers. But since Full MNP is still not planned for basic/landline numbers, to call landline numbers from your landline or mobile phones, you will still need to add ‘0’ or ’91’.

We’ve tested this feature while calling from mobiles of Vodafone, Tata Docomo, Idea and Airtel; and found this feature working. Exciting times for us in the telecom applications space – the ‘zero’ goes out. Try it, now give us a missed call on 9979PHONON (9979746666) and you’ll still be able to reach us.

Note: This is applicable to all our customers who have subscribed to our Mobile Virtual Numbers service.