According to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the northern region of the country comprising Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana has seen a significant jump in the number of subscribers requesting mobile number portability (MNP) since the initial launch of the service in Haryana on November 25, 2010, which was later extended to the rest of India on January 20.
According to the data, there have been requests from nearly 300,000 subscribers until February 2, 2011 from the northern region, while 1,350,000 subscribers have requested to avail the facility across India. Haryana is the frontrunner with 212,000 requests followed by Punjab (75,000), Himachal Pradesh (9,000) and Jammu and Kashmir (500).
To avail of the MNP service, a mobile user has to pay a porting fee of Rs 19. The user has to send a message to 1900, following which he gets a unique porting code. With this code, the user can fill a form of the new service provider. The process is expected to be completed in seven days.
