TRAI issues draft guidelines for mobile number portability
(3 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)
Loading ...
It seems TRAI wants to leave no stone unturned for smooth implementation of Mobile Number Portability in India. It has therefore issued a draft legislation to clear the uncertainty surrounding the introduction of mobile number portability.
The draft guidelines describes the rights, obligations and duties of both the telecom operators in consideration for the changing of telecom operators by subscribers.
The draft guidelines lays down major rules such as:
- A mobile subscriber shall be eligible to make a request for “porting” (changing) his mobile number upon expiry of a period of ninety days from the date of activation of his present mobile connection.
- The recipient operator, within five days of receiving a written request, has to carry out subscriber verification according to the guidelines for acquiring a new user.
- Upon verification, the request is to be forwarded to the donor operator (to whose network such mobile subscriber number currently belongs) for seeking its clearance.
This draft guideline mainly implies that a user would be able to switch telecom operator in a week (upto five days). The question regarding the charging of MNP still remains unanswered by TRAI. TRAI has asked for comments from stakeholders on the proposed draft guidelines by July 14.
MNP allows a user to change their telecom operator without changing the mobile phone number. TRAI had earlier indicated that it expects MNP to be implemented by 20 September 2009 in all metros and some states,the MNP charges are rumored in the range of Rs. 250-400. DoT has already selected two companies – Syniverse Technologies and MNP Interconnect – to implement and manage MNP.
What remains to be seen is how many people will actually avail of this facility to shift operators. In a competitive telecom market like India’s it’s unlikely that people would change unless they are extremely dissatisfied with the service. Also, since almost all the players provide similar services and prices, the Rs. 250-400 transfer cost might prove to be a deterrent.
This however could serve as an opportunity for new entrants in the industry. New telecom operators might decide to bear the cost of transfer on themselves in order to lure users to change. Of course, the implementation of MNP would only improve competition between service providers, the benefit of which will come to the user. It could also urge providers to initiate “loyalty programs” which could offer benefits to users who agree to a long-term contract with the provider.
The MNP reform has been hanging for a long time and with its implementation in sight, better guidelines would only help the cause. WATBlog earlier reported the benefits which could be accrued by Telecom VAS players through the introduction of MNP. Now the attention would be mainly on the pricing of MNP and fingers would still be crossed so that it finally sees the light of the day.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS Feed OR Email Alerts!
i hope there are now blackout periods during transfer from one operator to other. even today, some times when a connection is converted from pre paid to post paid one has to suffer atleat 1/2 days of connection black out.
Can I keep the same number if I move to a different circle e.g. if I move from Delhi to Mumbai will I be able to keep my number and not have to pay the roaming charges?