TRAI Reviews Implementation of Mobile Number Portability Over 17 Lakh Requests Received for Porting Mobile Number

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recently reviewed the status of Mobile Number Portability. About 17.11 lakh subscribers have submitted their requests to different service providers for porting their mobile number as per the reported data, till 5th February, 2011. Out of these requests, around 2.29 lakh pertains to Haryana Service area wherein MNP was implemented earlier. In rest of the country, in Zone-I (Northern & Western Region) maximum number of requests have been received in Gujarat (1.67 lakhs) followed by Rajasthan (1.44 lakhs) whereas in MNP Zone-II (Southern & Eastern Region) maximum number of requests have been received in Karnataka (1.16 lakh) followed by Tamilnadu service area (1.14 lakh).

It may be recalled that the facility of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) was introduced on a pilot basis in the service area of Haryana on 25th November 2010. After successful trial, it was introduced all over the country from 20th Jan 2011. TRAI is constantly monitoring the implementation of MNP in the country. Based on the complaints and feedback received, TRAI has instructed the service providers to strictly comply with the provisions of MNP Regulations.

It has been noted that certain port-in requests were rejected by the service providers. The major reasons for rejections are - incorrect Unique Porting Code submitted by subscriber in the porting form, non-completion of 90 days from the date of activation of mobile number, existing contractual obligation and non-payment of outstanding bill.

Subscribers are required to be careful on the below mentioned aspects of MNP:

- Incorrect Unique Porting Code submitted by subscriber in the porting form:

Unique Porting Code is a 8 digit code generated by the Donor operator when a subscriber sends an SMS to 1900. First two characters of the Unique Porting Code are Alphabets (denoting the service provider code and service area code) and remaining 6 digits are numerical characters except numeric ‘0’ (zero).

This Unique Porting Code should be filled in the Porting form without any error. Before submitting the porting request, subscribers should match the actual Unique Porting Code received by SMS, with the Unique Porting Code they have entered in the porting form so that there is no chance of any error.

- Non-completion of 90 days:

The subscriber is eligible for porting only if he has completed 90 days from the activation of the existing mobile connection or last porting date of mobile number which ever is applicable. The subscribers may ensure the same before applying for porting.

- Subsisting contractual obligations:

The Donor operator can reject a porting request if there are subsisting contractual obligations in respect of which an exit clause has been provided in the subscriber agreement but the subscriber has not complied with such exit clause.

- Non-payment of out standing bill

Donor Operator can reject a porting request if there are outstanding payments due from the subscriber by way of pending bill or bills, as the case may be before the date of application for porting. Therefore subscribers must ensure that their last bill is fully paid before applying for porting. They should also attach a copy of the paid bill receipt while applying for porting.

In order to avoid rejections of their porting requests, subscribers are advised to read the eligibility conditions carefully before submitting a porting request.

Source:pib