Soon, your UID number could become your mobile number

Faced with the prospect of the 10-digit series of mobile numbers being exhausted soon, owing to the rapid growth in mobile telephony, the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), a telecom research and development organisation, is studying whether the Unique Identity Number could be converted into mobile numbers.

The identity number is part of the government's ambitious Unique Identity (UID) programme to provide all citizens with an identity card in three or four years. The recently constituted UID Authority is headed by by former Infosys Chief Nandan Nilekani. Synchronising mobile numbers with driving licence numbers is another option under consideration.

"We are looking at this one-number concept so that a single number can be used for different purposes," C-DOT Executive Director P V Acharya told PTI.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) is planning to come up with 11- and 12-digit numbers, but Acharya pointed out that there was no guarantee that these would also not be exhausted. India adds over 10 million subscribers every month.

However, Acharya added that the one-number concept may not be usable right away since there are certain issues of protocol and standards.

“We are examining whether it is usable and if so, then what modifications are required in the infrastructure,” he added.      

He said the project is still at a preliminary stage and no funding has been decided yet. C-DOT has started the study project in May and is likely to come up with some conclusion within a year.

The government is planning to rework the current numbering plan and is already debating with the telecom regulator on the feasibility of offering 11- and 12-digit numbers can be offered. The present numbering plan was framed in 2003 to serve an estimated 750 million subscribers until 2030. However, the booming Indian telecom sector is likely to reach that figure much before that, since India’s current mobile subscriber base is already 440 million.

India is not the only country in which mobile numbers have had to be changed because of rapid growth story and new operators. China and the UK are among others to have had to do the same.