Recently there was a news item that Indian DoT has issued “notice” to Bharti, alleging that Bharti is conforming to the National Numbering Plan 2003 decree. Apparently, Airtel offers both postpaid and prepaid service options on the same phone number. The user will select the option by dialing “#1” prefix. DoT claims that this violates its NNP. Airttel claims that it is abiding by the licensing agreement.
It is astounding that this will be a point of debate. So I tried to locate NNP 2003, but failed. But there is a position paper from TRAI and it seems to suggest that dialing plan is part of the ruling. Since the dialing plan is an understanding between the users and their service providers, what is the social benefit in standardizing it? Does spped dialing violate this ruling?Why would TRAI, which has made rational ruling on VoIP matters will develop this kind of regulation?
Posted by aswath at November 27, 2005 11:00 PM