Telecom Lead Asia: TRAI has started pre-consultation process for pan India mobile number portability (MNP) services.
At present, MNP services — Idea Cellular is the leader in MNP — are available within a service area only. The proposed nation-wide MNP services enable mobile users to retain their numbers even if they shift from one state to another.
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TRAI on Wednesday sought comments from interested parties by March 7 on the method that should be adopted to implement full MNP, porting of mobile number from one service area to another, amendment required in existing regulation, among various other matters.
At present, there are two MNP service providers catering to 22 service areas.
According to TRAI, implementation of full MNP will mean acceptance of porting request by the recipient operator from a mobile number that may belong to other service area also.
Therefore, according to TRAI, to implement full mobile number portability, issues relating to processing of porting requests, routing, charging, testing etc. need to be identified and addressed. Changes will be required in the MNP process. There will be a need to connect between the two MNP service providers.
In the existing MNP regulations the time period for completion of porting for Jammu and Kashmir, North East and Assam is 15 working days whereas in rest of the service areas it is seven working days.
Source: agencies
