New Delhi: In a significant move, the Telecom Commission on Monday approved ‘112’ as the new single number for help during emergency situations including police, ambulance and the fire department.
This would be similar to the ‘911’ all-in-one emergency service in the US.
“Telecom Commission has accepted Trai’s recommendation on single emergency number 112. It will now be drafted by the department of telecom and will require telecom minister’s (Ravi Shankar Prasad) approval. It will be rolled out within months rather than a year,” said officials from the department.
The panel has accepted recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) after including clarifications given by it. The proposal on MVNO too will need approval from the minister. Even those people, who-se SIM have been blocked or out going stopped by the operators, will be able to call 112.
All existing emergency numbers will be phased out within a year of rolling out 112, depending upon the awareness about this new facility. Currently in India, a person has to call different emergency numbers depending upon situation including 100 for police, 101 for fire brigade, 102 for ambulance and 108 for Emergency Disaster Management.
Also many states have notified various helpline numbers for assistance to special categories of citizens, like Woman in distress — 181 (Delhi), Missing Children and Women — 1094 (Delhi), Crime Against Women - 1096 (Delhi), Police Headquarter helpline — 1090 (Uttar Pradesh) among others.
Meanwhile, MVNO will be able to offer all telecom services provided by a telecom operator with which it has partnered. It can sell services of more than one operator.
It also approved a proposal to allow mobile virtual network operators, which will result in the entry of new players in the market. MVNO offer voice and data services under their own brands without owning network or spectrum. They buy voice and data in bulk from the licensed telecom operators and sell them under their own brand enhancing competition in the market.
