The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) allocated MSC codes thrice to the number one private telecom operator of the country, Reliance Jio, in January 2022. The new MSC codes allocated to the telco were for seven different regions of the county. It is worth noting that none of the other telecom operators required fresh MSC codes from the DoT; only Jio was after the fresh codes. For the unaware, MSC codes are the first five-digit of your mobile phone number. The DoT has full control over the allocation of MSC codes as it is a scarce resource in nature. Thus, as and when a telco requires it, the DoT allocates it.
The fact that it was only Jio and not Vodafone Idea (Vi) or Bharti Airtel, which required these MSC codes prove that Jio’s SIM with new numbers are in heavy demand. It also makes sense as the telco has the reputation of mostly adding the highest number of subscribers in a month.
Regions for Which Reliance Jio Was Allocated MSC Codes
The seven regions for which Reliance Jio was allocated MSC codes from the DoT are — UP East, Odisha, Rajasthan, Haryana, Assam, Kolkata, and Madhya Pradesh.
Following is the list of MSC codes the telco got for each region:
UP East — 92350-92359
Odisha — 92370-92379
Rajasthan — 92510-92519
Haryana — 92540-92549
Assam — 92870-92879
Kolkata — 92300-92309
Madhya Pradesh — 92440-92449
These are the fresh MSC codes that have been allocated to Reliance Jio. Now the telco can use these codes to create fresh and brand new numbers for its SIMs. Note that the DoT oversees the issuing of these numbers very closely as the telcos are not allowed to give it to porting out customers of some of the other telcos such as TTSL (if any). TTSL has been out of the consumer telecom business for a very long-time, but the DoT has still asked Jio to not allow any porting out of TTSL customers to its subscriber base by issuing them a new number from this series.
