According to our exclusive sources, India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is all set to put cap of maximum 9 mobile numbers/ SIM card taken by an individual or on Single Name in next few days. As current 10 digit mobile number series is fast approaching limit, with country's mobile subscriber base (GSM and CDMA) estimated to surpass one billion, and an inefficient number allocation system.
According to the new rules, a customers can not hold more than 9 connections from all service providers in a single name in a services area/telecom circle. Customer has to declare in the CAF number of mobile connections held in his/her name with other operators at the time of buying new connections.
Presently there is no cap on mobile connections for an individuals and the new limit of "9 Mobile Connections" will be implemented from November 9th, 2013 thereafter the existing individual mobile subscribers may need to surrender their old mobile connections, if they want new mobile connections or having mobile connections exceeding the new limit of nine numbers.
All current mobile phone number series in India are rapidly being used up and coming closer to capacity, as the country's subscriber base is estimated to shoot past one billion by middle of 2013 and it could be a "serious problem" if issue not resolved by the middle of next year.
Mobile numbers in series of 98, 99, 94, 92, 93 and some more are allotted to service providers in batches and they are associated with them for common recognition. This batch system or particular series helps overcome ambiguity, and chaos during the subscription for new mobile connections. But the curious case here is, that not all of these numbers have been put to use as mobile numbers. While some people get used as spare connections, a large chunk remains inactive as we can see the VLR data from telecos, which seems to be a concern of DoT (Department of Telecom) officials, and something which they will be looking at during this problem.
Apart from the cap on Mobile Connections, one solution is introducing 11-digit phone numbers or adding one more digit in all existing series of mobile numbers although the Department of Telecom (DoT) is also looking at alternatives, more details are awaited.
