The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has said that Vodafone Essar has rejected the mobile number portability (MNP) requests of several subscribers on flimsy grounds.
In its direction on this issue, the regulator has said, ?A majority of MNP requests have been rejected owing to non-compliance with contractual obligations. However, customers have said that no such agreements were signed with the operator.?
Under MNP regulations, a subscriber can change their operator without changing their number.
TRAI added that when complaints were forwarded to Vodafone Essar, the customers filing the complaint were permitted to port out of its network.
Prior to this, in May 2011, TRAI had issued broad directions on the contractual obligation pertaining to MNP, which stated that operators should not reject MNP requests if the outstanding dues of the subscriber in question were less than Rs 10.
It also said that the request for MNP could be rejected if the customer had a post-paid connection with a bundled handset and the subscriber had not complied with the deal?s exit conditions.
Meanwhile, TRAI has asked Vodafone Essar to comply with its directive in seven days.
