Trai fixes Rs 19 as fee to change mobile operators

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) today fixed at Rs 19 the reference rate for portability fee -- charged from users for changing operator while retaining the number.

The per port transaction charge will be Rs 19 and the subscriber will not be charged more than that. However, operators are free to levy any amount less than or equal to this charge, Trai said in a statement today.

The government has fixed the deadline of December 31, 2009, by which operators should ready their networks for porting of numbers in metros.