Mobile number portability to be delayed

Mobile Number Portability will be delayed by at least three months from its scheduled implementation date as the telecom regulator is still busy preparing regulations for the new system.     

Mobile Number Portability (MNP) is a service that allows subscribers to retain their existing mobile telephone number when they switch from one service provider to another or from one technology to another of the same service provider.     

"Mobile number portability will come by the end of this year," Telecom Secretary Siddartha Behura told reporters on the sidelines of a conference.     

Talking about the delay in implementation of MNP, he said, "It is a new thing... Regulations are being prepared on this."     

Earlier, the government had said that MNP would come by September this year.     

The Department of Telecommunications(DoT) had issued guidelines for for its implementation in the country in August last year.

Subsequently, the DoT issued licences to two companies each serving a separate zone in the country. Telecom regulator TRAI is working on regulations and the charges for the same.     

Trai Chairman J S Sarma said, "Trai already came out with the draft on regulations... We have an open house on this on July 27." 

On the tariff side, he said, Trai had already floated a consultation paper seeking industry and other stakeholders' opinion on MNP charges, which will decide what the mobile operators and customers will have to pay for switching subscribers.     

As per the MNP service licence, three types of charges are applicable in case of MNP, which includes — Per Port Transaction, the charge payable by the Recipient Operator (the operator, where the subscriber is willing to port his number) to the MNP service provider for processing the request.     

The second is Porting, which means the charge payable by subscriber for porting his number. While, the third is Dipping, the cost that service providers pay for the query response of MNP service provider.