Great Advantage for the mobile users

TELECOM regulator Trai on Tuesday unveiled draft regulations for the implementation of mobile number portability (MNP), a facility that will allow consumers to change their telecom operator but retain their phone number. According to this,for example, if you are using a fancy mobile number like 9866778899 which is an AIRTEL number. If you wan to change to vodafone or tata indicom from your existing airtel service provider, you can do that even by keeping the same fancy number with you.i.e, the new service provider will provide the service to your same airtel number.

Trai has proposed that new mobile users be permitted to change their operators only after 90 days of signing up with their first service provider. It has also recommended that after changing their operator, consumers need to stay with the new telco for a minimum of 90 days. It has suggested that customers give a written undertaking to their existing service provider for switching to a new operator, which will then have to mandatorily carry out all checks, including identity verification, before the process can be completed. Trai has said that the process must be completed within five days.The regulator has also said that customers who wish to change their operators will be charged a fee, which would be specified later after consultations with both the industry and consumer bodies. But several executives at telcos said that the fee was likely to range anywhere between Rs 250-400.

The draft rules also state that the operators must telephonically inform the customer of the exact date and time the porting will happen. Post-paid customers will provide proof that there are no outstanding payments before they can change their operator, Trai added. The regulator has also clarified that the new operator that takes on the ported customers is not bound to repay any deposits made by the customer to his original service provider. The regulator has also made it clear that customers may have to face a ‘no service period’ that can extend for upto a few hours during which they will not be able to receive and make calls, as they are moved to a new operator. But in a bid to address concerns, Trai has said that the new operator must provide the customer with a list of missed calls and messages sent during the ‘no service period’.

This will be a great advantage for the user as they can expect better services and tariffs from their existing operator. Once this facility came into existence, (which is expected to hit the market around sep20) there will be a better and healthy competition between the service providers and hence we can expect better tariffs.

The DoT has already appointed two companies — Syniverse Technologies and MNP Interconnect — to be the MNP service provider, manage day-to-day management and implementation and also maintain the database of all numbers. While MNP will kick off in metros and category A circles such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Gujarat on September 20, the rest of the country will have access to this facility from March 20, 2010




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