The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has extended the deadline to implement the full mobile number portability (MNP) across the country by two more months. The earlier deadline to roll out ?full MNP? was May 3, 2015.
Earlier, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) had sought extension of the deadline for implementing nationwide MNP as telecom operators had to make some technical changes to their networks due to changes in national numbering plan, which can take about eight weeks to implement. To make these changes, telecom operators are required to configure mobile switches across country and route them properly. Due to these issues, COAI had stated that operators are likely to miss the deadline of May 3, 2015.
The nation-wide MNP, once implemented, will allow subscribers to retain their mobile numbers in any part of the country even when they change their operator or state. At present, MNP allows subscribers to change mobile network while retaining their number in the same telecom circle.
