Full mobile number portability in India from May 3

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued sixth amendment to the Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability Regulation, 2009 that will facilitate full MNP (Pan-India Portability) in the country, with effect from May 3, 2015.

Earlier TRAI made recommendations to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for implementation of Full MNP/National MNP and suggested amendments in the licenses of MNP service providers and mobile service providers.

Accordingly, on November 3,  2014, the DoT had issued amendment(s) to the MNP License Agreement.

As per the DoT, the full MNP is to be implemented in the country within a period of six months from the date of amendment to the licenses, i.e. May 3, 2015.

In view of the implementation of full Mobile Number Portability, some changes were required in the MNP Regulations, 2009 (as amended).

Accordingly, a draft Amendment to the Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability Regulation, 2009, was prepared and uploaded on TRAI website (www.trai.gov.in) for consultation with the stakeholders. Based on stakeholder’s comments and  in-house analysis, necessary amendments have been made in the MNP Regulations.

Accordingly, in this Amendment, apart from facilitating Pan-India Portability, a few changes have also been made in the porting process as well.

“In case a post-paid subscriber who has ported his number defaults in the payment of his previous bill which was due to the Donor Operator(previous service provider from whom the subscriber has ported out), the Donor Operator has to give a notice within a period of 30 days of due date of payment of its outstanding bill.

After a lapse of 60 days from the due date of payment of the outstanding bill, the Donor Operator will not be entitled to raise non-payment disconnection requests with the Recipient Operator,” the statement said.

For a post paid subscriber who has defaulted payment to the Donor Operator, the Donor operator will request the Recipient operator to disconnect the ported number.

The Recipient Operator in turn will give a notice of 15 days for making such payment, failing which the outgoing services of such subscriber will be debarred for a period of 15 days.

In case the subscriber fails to make payment within these 15 days, his mobile number will be disconnected permanently by the Recipient Operator.

In order to effectively utilize the numbering resources, provision has been made to reduce the time period for a ported mobile number, which has been disconnected due to any reasons, to return to the original service provider (to whom the number belongs) in 60 days time instead of 90 days prescribed earlier.