Mobile Number Portability will be implemented from December 31 in metros and category 'A' service areas, and by March 20, 2010, in rest of the country, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said on Wednesday.
Mobile number portability offers the user freedom of choice. You are free to choose a new mobile service provider without losing your existing number. So, if you are not satisfied with your existing provider, you don't have to stay with it just to keep your number.
The MNP facility will enable subscribers to retain their cell phone numbers even after changing service providers. The government earlier this month had said implementation of MNP would be delayed by three months as regulations were still being made.
Issuing the Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability Regulations, 2009, Trai said the MNP facility shall be available only within a given licensed service area.
A subscriber holding a mobile number is eligible to make a porting request only after 90 days of the date of activation of his mobile connection.
If a number is already ported once, the number can again be ported only after 90 days from the date of the previous porting. The cost to the subscriber seeking the porting is yet to be decided by Trai.
The subscriber who wishes to port his mobile number should approach the recipient operator (the operator to whom the subscriber wants to port his number). The subscriber may be required to pay porting charges, if any, to the recipient operator.
Also, the subscriber must clear all the bills issued prior to the date of porting request.
The subscriber shall give an undertaking that he has already paid all billed dues to the donor operator as on the date of the request for porting.
Also, he shall pay dues to the donor operator pertaining to the mobile number till its eventual porting, and that he understands and agrees that in event of non-payment of any such dues to the donor operator, the ported mobile number shall be liable to be disconnected by the recipient operator.
A subscriber may withdraw his porting request within 24 hours of its submission to the recipient operator. However, the porting charges shall not be refundable.
Access providers are required to implement the All Call Query method. The originating operator shall be responsible to route the call to correct terminating network.
The facility would help a subscriber to retain the mobile telephone number despite moving to a new telecom service provider.
It would also help increase competition among service providers and catalyse them to improve service quality.
