Your CDMA and GSM numbers are likely to be expanded to 11 digits by early next year! Yes, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), which, onetime maintained that the ten-digit mobile number system will go on for the next 30 years in India, is now considering introducing 11 digits numbering system.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), in its National Numbering Plan (NNP) 2003, stated, "When subscriber base in an SDCA (short distance charging area, or a circle in common parlance) expands beyond 4 crore, changeover from 10-digit to 11-digit may be required. However, this scenario is not envisaged almost for another 30 years."

According to DoT, it is compelled to considering 11 digits numbering system because of the current growth of mobile subscribers. The rough base limit for the 10 digit number system is about 450 million subscribers, which is likely to be crossed by the next year. With 15 million mobile subscribers increasing every month, the current number of mobile subscribers 376 million (at the end of February, 2009) is likely to cross the limit (450 million) in next 10-15 months. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) reported that there were 375.74 million wireless subscribers in India, at the end of February 2009.

“An 11-digit numbering framework will cause minimum disturbance to existing mobile phone users,” the DoT officials said. According to DoT officials, the switching over from 10 to 11 digits numbering system will require addition of a number before or at the end of current number system; possibly number “9” will be prefixed or suffixed to the current number system. The DoT officials said, “According to international norms, mobile phone numbers in a country should have a uniform number of digits.”

Currently, only two countries China (with 624.16 million mobile subscribers as in January) and United Kingdom use 11-digit number system. United Kingdom’s number of wireless subscribers is much lower, but still its uses 11-digit numbers for technical reasons. As in January, there were 276.1 million wireless subscribers in United States, 181.5 million in Russia, 145 million in Brazil, 117 million in Indonesia, 106 million in Germany, 104.83 million in Japan, 92.8 million in Italy, and 90.52 million in Pakistan.