Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) unveiled draft regulations for the implementation of mobile number portability (MNP), a facility that will allow consumers to change their telecom operator, but retain their phone number.
The draft regulations describe the rights, obligations and duties of both the telecom operators (donor and recipient) for the “porting” (changing) of mobile number, TRAI said in a statement.
According to the draft regulations, new mobile users will be permitted to change their operators only after 90 days of signing up with their first service provider. It has also recommended that after changing their operator, consumers need to stay with the new telco for a minimum of 90 days.
To acquire a new user, the recipient operator has to carry out subscriber verification within five days of receiving a written request. After verification, the request has to be forwarded to the donor operator (to whose network the mobile subscriber number currently belongs) to obtain clearance. After receipt of the porting request, the donor operator shall verify and communicate the details to the MNP service provider within two working days. In number portability, a user can change service provider without changing his mobile number.
Mobile number portability would also work for Indian pre-paid mobile phone connections. In this case, the balance in the existing pre-paid card would be exhausted, or would be lost. Credit transfers to another provider do not come within the purview of mobile number portability. However, whether this also would be offered initially is unclear.
Subscribers will face a fee for the service; estimates for the fee are between INR250 -INR400. Two firms, Syniverse Technologies and MNP Interconnect have now been engaged to serve up as MNP service providers and will be responsible for day-to-day management of the system. TRAI will finalize the MNP regulations after feedback on the draft rules from the industry and consumer organizations.It is expected that MNP to be implemented by 20 September 2009 in all metros and some states. The rest of the country will have access to this facility from March 20, 2010.
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