Starting today, landline to mobile calls will not be possible without doing this

Airtel informed its customers on Wednesday that "effective January 15th, it would be mandatory to prefix '0' before the mobile number while dialing from a landline," The Economic Times reports. A similar announcement is expected from Vodafone-Idea, Reliance Jio, BSNL, and MTNL. 

It is important to note that prefixing '0' is only required for landline to mobile phone calls and will not be necessary for landline to landline, mobile to landline, and mobile to mobile calls.

According to the DoT, this change in landline to mobile calls will free up sufficient numbering resources for mobile services due to the increase in mobile user base and fall in landline connections across India. "By making it mandatory to access mobile numbers in a service area from a fixed network by dialing prefix ‘0', all the free sub-levels in levels ‘2','3','4', and ‘6', can also be used for mobile numbers. This change in dialling pattern will generate 2,544 million additional numbering resources for mobile services to cater to future requirements," the DoT said back in November.