The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has given conditional approval to Telcordia Technologies to implement mobile number portability (MNP) in the country. Prior to this, the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) had rejected the company?s proposal on security grounds. MNP is to be formally launched on January 20, 2011.
MNP Interconnection Telecom Solutions (MITS), a joint venture between Telcordia and Deepak Talwar Consultants, was given the license to implement MNP for the southern and eastern zones in 2009. License for the remaining zones was given to Syniverse Technologies.
Subsequently, the Ministry of Home Affairs had proposed to revoke the approval citing security reasons following Telcordia?s contract with the Pakistan MNP database. Deepak Talwar Consultants, in its individual capacity, had no expertise in running a telecom network.
MNP launch in the country was also delayed, as operators did not have the necessary infrastructure and were reluctant to implement the same. The DoT had initially set December 31, 2009 as the deadline for launching MNP in metros and category-A circles, and April 1, 2010 for the rest of India.
The target was then rescheduled to October 31, 2010. Thereafter, MNP was launched in the Haryana circle on November 24, 2010 and the deadline for the rest of the country was fixed for January 20, 2011.
