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It is bad news for mobile phone subscribers who wish to retain their numbers but switch operators. This is because number-portability is unlikely to become a reality, at least in the immediate future.

Indian cellular operators have voiced their lack of interest in switching to the number-portability regime to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

Trai officials said with the operators showing reluctance, it was unlikely to push for such a move.

"Operators will have to spend an extra 10 per cent on infrastructure to implement number-portability. The question is do we need network costs to increase by 10 per cent at the expense of growth?" Trai Chairman Pradip Baijal told Business Standard.

Besides, this had been tried only in a handful of developed countries, he added. According to the department of telecommunications (DoT) sources, the first step towards number-portability will involve the setting up of a centralised database and an interconnect exchange among all operators.

"This is bound to take time as issues connected with interconnection of various networks remain unresolved. An interconnect exchange-cum-inter-carrier billing system is required for routing all inter-network traffic in the multi-operator, multi-system service scenario in the country," said a DoT official.

Even if operators agree to an interconnect exchange, disputes over technical and regulatory inputs for its implementation are likely to stall the process, the official added.

According to DoT officials, the industry is sharply divided over who will meet the operational and maintenance costs of interconnect exchanges, how many such exchanges are required, whether the functionality of an inter-carrier bill clearing house should be included, and also over the role of the government, the regulator and service providers in the post-interconnect exchange scenario.

In March, Trai had constituted an expert group chaired by its Secretary Harsha Vardhan Singh to look into these issues.

"We will bring out a consultation paper on the issue soon. The process will be lengthy," Baijal said.

"Operators are in no hurry to find solutions as they feel that number-portability will offer unfair advantage to new entrants. The response to Trai's proposed consultation paper will be lukewarm," said an executive with a cellular operator.

"India is amongst the most competitive and the fastest growing mobile markets in the world. Number-portability will see operators shift focus to preventing migration, rather than growth," added another executive.