The regulator TRAI’s proposal to levy a charge on operators for allocating new numbers has been strongly opposed by the service provider community who have termed any such proposal as totally unwarranted.

Operators cite that they are already paying significant fees to the government in terms of spectrum and licence fees. According to some of the operators, numbering resources is the most basic need for accessing any telecom service.

“New block of numbers are alloted only after demonstrating 60 and 80 per cent utilisation stringently for mobile and fixed line respectively”, said Bharti Airtel.

TRAI had suggested a price on allocation of new numbers as it reasoned that service providers are not efficiently utilizing the numbers. It had included this proposal as part of its consultation paper floated to take industry viewpoints on numbering plan to adopt keeping in view of the rapid penetration of mobile services.

“Charging of numbers is not preferable and will harm the long-term growth of the telecom sector in our country. If service providers acquire ownership rights in numbers, then any reclamation when needed would be very difficult. The sale of numbers may lead to hoarding without having served the objective of efficient utilisation of numbering resources,” said RCom.

However viewpoints presented by B K Syngal, Senior Principal, Dua Consulting point out that the existing 10-digit numbering plan support 1.69 billion wireline connections. This is not required as wireline services in total have only 37.31 million subscribers. Even if it is estimated that this segment will grow to 100 million subscribers in the next five years, the figures do not justify such a allocation. The existing plan can be reviewed to accommodate more mobile connections, says B K Syngal.

According to him, there should certainly be an annual levy on each number allocated. “We are of the view that an annual charge per block of numbers held will be a suitable option. Also the same should be applicable for both present and future allocation of blocks,” says Syngal.