Are You Paying STD Rates for That 'Local' Call?

Advertisement
By NDTV Correspondent | Updated: 12 August 2015 13:48 IST
Are You Paying STD Rates for That 'Local' Call?
Nationwide mobile number portability (MNP) went live in the country last month, which means you can now move from one state (telecom circle, to be precise) to another, while still retaining your number. For example, you may be an Airtel Delhi customer right now, but say you wish to move to Mumbai because you prefer the hustle and bustle of the local train to the metro's comfort. You can do that without having to inform your friends anything's changed at all.

As a pre-cursor to this move, the numbering plan of the country - which dictates what numbers are reserved for which location/ operator, and how you dial from one to the other - was amended to allow mobile numbers in any telecom circle to be dialled without a 0 or +91 prefix. So when your friend moved to Mumbai without any information, you were still able to dial him without any problem, even though you didn't save his number with 0 or +91 prefix.

When this change happened, many thought it will be the end of STD calling rates, especially when dialling mobiles, since operators will no longer be able to detect the circle of the dialled number just by looking at it. Until now, it's been relatively simple to identify the circle of a number just by looking at the first 5 digits - in fact there are several third-party apps and websites that let you do just that. Once numbers are allowed to move between circles, however, all this goes for a toss.

However, telcos can still identify which numbers belong to another circle. Jatinder Ahuja, Head of India and South West Asia Business, at Amdocs, a leading providers of OSS and BSS solutions to world's leading telcos including ones in India, says that there are additional checks that can be performed to identify if a call is on-network (within an operator's network) or off-network, as well local or STD.

Advertisement

"These checks are performed online at the time of user transaction and includes options such as MNP database queries, location routing number network prefix identification etc," says Ahuja. "The MNP feature in billing software enables telecom operators to perform differential charging for various on-net/ off-net transactions as per their business plans."

Advertisement

An Airtel representative confirmed that numbers that move to another circle are indeed being charged as STD calls to customers in the original circle. This means when your friend moved from Delhi to Mumbai, you started paying STD rates for those calls.

Advertisement

This may not be a big deal for many, especially with the price difference between STD and local calls not being as huge as it used be, but it'll be useful information for at least a few. For instance, maybe you have a pack that gives you free local calling or a certain amount of local minutes, but you find that calls to a particular number that 'looks' local are still being charged to your account balance. Now you know why.

 

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: MNP, STD, Telecom
Advertisement

Related Stories

Popular Mobile Brands
  1. Vivo X200 FE Global Launch Confirmed; Design Teased
  2. Vivo Y400 Pro 5G India Launch Date Confirmed; Design Revealed
  3. Poco F7 Launch Date, Price in India, Design and Key Features Leaked Online
  4. Oppo K13x 5G India Launch Date, Price Range and Key Features Revealed
  5. OnePlus Nord 5 Series, OnePlus Buds 4 to Launch in India on This Date
  6. Oppo Reno 14 5G Series, Watch X2 Mini, Enco Buds 3, Pad SE to Launch Globally
  7. Hisense U7Q Mini-LED TV Launched in India With These Features
  8. WhatsApp Will Soon Let You Scan Documents on Your Android Phone
  9. Apple to Ship 2.8 Million iPhone Units in India in Q2 Despite Slowdown
  1. Bitget Partners UNICEF Unit to Expand Blockchain Training Across India, Other Countries 
  2. WhatsApp Reportedly Working on Ability to Scan Documents on Android Smartphones
  3. ElevenLabs Expands Eleven V3 Text-to-Speech Model With Support for 41 New Languages
  4. Vivo T4 Lite 5G India Launch Confirmed; Battery Capacity, Price Range Teased
  5. TikTok Pushes Deeper Into AI-Generated Video Ads With New Tools
  6. Apple Risks Fresh EU Charge Sheet Over App Store Curbs
  7. The Witcher 4 Will Target 60 FPS on Consoles, but Series S Will Be 'Extremely Challenging' Says CD Projekt Red
  8. Oppo Reno 14 5G Series Global Launch Teased Alongside Watch X2 Mini, Enco Buds 3 and Pad SE
  9. Microsoft Begins Testing AI Agents in Windows 11, Brings Option to Share Recall Snapshots in Europe
  10. watchOS 26 to Bring Control Center Customisation Options with User-Defined Toggles
Gadgets 360 is available in
Download Our Apps
Available in Hindi
© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2025. All rights reserved.