Mobile Portability in India by June, 2009

The Mobile phone has become a household article in India and also has become an indispensable and integral part of every Indian. Despite of having  number mobile service operators throughout India, the mobile subscribers are increasingly finding it difficult to have a satisfactory service from their service providers and in the process have to frequently switch over to a different mobile service provider in quest of better and uninterrupted service. While switching over from one service provider to another, the mobile subscriber loose his identity among his friends and clients, since his mobile number also gets changed in the process of switch over.

To bail out a mobile subscriber from the above said difficulty, mobile portability across India is being allowed by June, 2009 and the scheme is in the offing.

Mobile users in non-metros including  Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu would be able to change their service providers from June  next year while retaining their number.

In its draft request for proposal telecom regulator, TRAI has recommended implementation of mobile number portability across in India by June, 2009.TRAI has also proposed to select an operator who will be licensed for providing and operating mobile number portability (MNP) solutions. The Department of Telecom (DOT) had already said it would introduce mobile number portability in the four metros-Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, by the end of 2008, i.e in the fourth quarter of 2008.

India, the fastest growing wireless market, has been adding about 70 lakh users every month and is set to overtake the US as the second largest mobile market. There were about 25.1 crore mobile users in the country at the end of the February.

According to an analyst from an international consulting firm, upto 30 % mobile users could shift from their existing service providers after the introduction of MNP.

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), in its draft proposal has said that a neutral third party should own and operate MNP clearing house and logically centralized the data base.The company would not have substantial equity (10 % or more) directly or indirectly in any of the telecom service provider in India.The TRAI has also recommended that the MNP clearing house administrator (MCHA) should be licensed through a competitive bidding.

The planning of database need for all India basis with a scalability option so that in first phase it is implemented in Metros.The respective access/long distance operators would have to bear the cost of upgradation of their networks, as suggested by TRAI.

Incase of prepaid mobile subscribers, who avail MNP facility, no credit transfer will be allowed to the new account. The subscriber has to either consume the balance amount or forego it.

No doubt the MNP facility will be a boon to the mobile subscriber in India.