Mobile telephone numbering in India
All mobile numbers in India start with 9, 8, 7 or 6 which is based on GSM, WCDMA and LTE technologies. This includes pager services, but the use of pagers is on the decline. Each telecom circle is allowed to have multiple private operators; earlier it was two private + BSNL/MTNL, subsequently it changed to three private + BSNL/MTNL in GSM; now each telecom circle has more than five operators including BSNL/MTNL.
All mobile phone numbers are 10 digits long. The way to split the numbers is
defined in the National Numbering Plan 2003 as XXXX-NNNNNN. Here, XXXX identifies the network operator and the telecom circle while NNNNNN identifies the subscriber.
Telecom circles
The Department of Telecommunications has divided India into various telecom circles such that within each circle, the call is treated as a local call, while across zones, it becomes a long-distance call. As of July 2018 there are 23 telecom circles or service areas. They are classified into four categories: Metro, A, B, C. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata fall under Metro category. Chennai service area doesn't come under Metro category, as it has been a part of the Tamil Nadu service circle since 2007.A telecom circle is normally the entire state, with a few exceptions like Mumbai and Kolkata, Goa, Chhattisgarh, Sikkim Jharkhand, Northeastern states except Assam and Sikkim or Uttar Pradesh. Delhi is a unique circle because it includes towns from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh as well. Recent formation of the new state of Telangana has been separated from Andhra Pradesh state which will still remain in the same circle.
From May 20, 2005, calls between Mumbai Metro and Maharashtra Telecom Circle, between Chennai Metro and Tamil Nadu Telecom Circle, and between Uttar Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh Telecom Circle service areas are merged in Inter service area connected in the above-mentioned four states would be treated as intra-service area call for the purposes of routing as well as Access Deficit Charges. The dialing procedure for calls within a state for these states would also be simplified, i.e. dialing of mobile-to mobile subscribers and fixed-to-mobile subscribers would be without prefixing '0'.
In December 2017, Reliance Jio started with the newest of all, "the six-series-mobile numbers", keeping in mind the growing number of users in India. The growth in the number of 4G users in the country has made the 4G base larger than the 2G users in India pushing number of 2G users to second position.
Network operators
| AT | Airtel India |
| CG | BSNL Mobile |
| DP | MTNL |
| AV | AEROVOCE |
| RJ | Reliance Jio |
| VF | Vodafone India-Merged with Idea Cellular-Vodafone Idea Ltd. |
| ID | Idea Cellular-Merged with Vodafone India-Vodafone Idea Ltd. |
- Note: The mobile numbers and operators are subject to change since Mobile number portability is available in most circles.
- Note: Abbreviations of shutdown telecom operators in below tables:-
- Note: CH circle refers to Chennai, which has been merged with Tamil Nadu circle.
9xxx series