The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued the Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability Regulations, 2009. Under these regulations, subscribers are allowed to retain their existing mobile phone numbers when they move from one access provider to another, irrespective of the mobile technology, or from one cellular mobile technology to another of the same access provider, in a licensed service area.

The mobile number portability (MNP) system is expected to be implemented from December 31, 2009 across the metros and Category A circles such as Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, and in the rest of the country from March 31, 2010.

The rationale for introducing MNP is that it would allow customers to retain their existing mobile number while moving to another telecom service provider, thus enabling them to remain in touch with personal and professional contacts. MNP will also help increase competition among service providers and act as a catalyst for service providers to improve their quality of service.

Though delayed by nearly a year, the TRAI regulations have outlined the basic business process framework for MNP implementation after due consultation with stakeholders, and careful analysis.

The regulations have set clear eligibility conditions for porting mobile phone numbers; defining the rights and obligations of various stakeholders such as the donor operator, the recipient operator and the MNP service provider; laying down the procedure to be followed by each player in the chain in processing number porting requests; specifying clear time limits for the completion of various steps by each player in the chain; and finally, causing least disruption of service to the subscriber.

TRAI has stipulated that subscribers who wish to port their number must submit their requests in writing to their service providers. The new operator needs to mandatorily carry out all checks, including identity verification, before completing the process within a period of four days (a higher number of days in the case of the north-eastern states).

According to the regulations, subscribers need to stay with an operator for at least three months (90 days) after service activation before switching to another operator. Similarly, subscribers who have ported once can do so again only after staying with the new operator for at least 90 days. And operators can be changed only within the circle in which they are registered.

Subscribers would have to pay the recipient operator non-refundable porting charges, the value of which is yet to be decided. The regulator has also mandated that a subscriber making a porting request should clear all bills owed to the operator.

The key features of the MNP regulations are as follows:

  • 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 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.
  • The subscriber making the porting request is required to have cleared all bills issued prior to the date of the porting request and give an undertaking that all billed dues have been paid to the donor operator as of the date of the request for porting, and that all dues pertaining to the mobile number would be paid to the donor operator till its eventual porting. The subscriber further needs to agree that in the event of non-payment of any such dues to the donor operator, the ported mobile number would be liable to be disconnected by the recipient operator.
  • A subscriber may withdraw his porting request within a 24-hour period of its submission to the recipient operator. However, the porting charges would not be refunded.
  • The regulation envisages a maximum time period of four days for the completion of the porting process in all licensed service areas except in Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and the Northeast, where the maximum time allowed is 12 days. However, efforts would be made to further reduce the porting period.
  • Access providers are required to implement the “all call query” method.
  • The originating operator would be responsible for routing the call to the correct terminating network.

    • Though the porting charges have not been finalised yet by TRAI, based on the calculations of the two companies chosen for implementing MNP in India ?? Syniverse Technologies and MNP Interconnection Teleco Solutions ?? it is being speculated that the charge for porting an operator may range from Rs 75 to Rs 200.

    In all, though the guidelines have been eagerly awaited, the move is expected to exert additional pressure on telecom operators. With churn in the industry currently standing at around 4.5 per cent per month, operators can expect nearly half of the country’s over 400 million subscribers to look for a change within a year’s time.