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News |  21 Feb 2013 13:48 |  By RnMTeam

Trai commences pan India mobile number portability process

MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has commenced the pre-consultation process for nationwide mobile number portability (MNP) services, which will allow users to retain their numbers even after they shift from one service area to another.

At present, MNP services are available within a service area only.

The TRAI has released a pre-consultation paper to implement full MNP and has asked stakeholders to provide their comments on the method that should be adopted on porting of mobile number from one service area to another, amendments required in existing regulation and other matters by 7 March.

A statement issued by Trai said, “Through this pre-consultation paper, the authority is seeking views from stakeholders on various issues. Implementation of full MNP would mean acceptance of porting request by the recipient operator from a mobile number that may belong to other service area also. Therefore, to implement full mobile number portability, issues relating to processing of porting requests, routing, charging, testing etc. need to be identified and addressed.”

Currently, there are two MNP service providers catering to 22 service areas in India. In  future, there will be a need to have connectivity between the two MNP service providers. The statement added, “Accordingly, changes will be required in the MNP process.”

In the existing MNP regulations, the time period for completion of porting for Jammu and Kashmir, North East and Assam is 15 working days, while it is seven working days in other remaining service areas.

The pan-India mobile number portability was one of the top elements of the National Telecom Policy 2012. The government is now trying to ensure a timely implementation of the service and aims to launch the MNP services at the earliest. Apart from that, they are also aiming to abolish roaming charges as per the NTP 2012.

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