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Our Bureau

New Delhi, Nov. 25 Kick-starting the process for implementing mobile number portability (MNP), the Department of Telecom has invited bids from technology companies which will set up the system in the country. Number portability allows subscribers to retain their existing telephone numbers when they switch from one operator to another.

A recent study pointed out that having to give up their mobile numbers was the top reason that subscribers did not want to change their operator despite poor quality of services.

The move to introduce MNP will now force cellular operators to offer better quality of services in order to keep the churn rate low. Number portability will benefit the new mobile operators, who can hope to take away some of the subscribers from the existing operators, without having to change the user’s phone number.

According to the guidelines outlined by DoT earlier, the country will be divided into two zones consisting of 11 circles areas each. An MNP service provider will be put in place for each zone, which will run the system by setting up a clearing house and database of subscribers who change their operator.

The two service providers will be selected through a bidding process. Existing telecom players will not be allowed to be an MNP service provider. Companies such as Telcordia, Tekelec, Nortel and Syniverse may bid for the MNP service provider licence.

While the existing mobile operators have agreed to cooperate with the Government after initially blocking the proposal, there are still serious differences within the industry.

The DoT had earlier said that operators with dual technology can implement number portability within its own network. This meant that a company such as Reliance Communications would be able to offer a GSM connection to its existing CDMA subscribers.

However, the Cellular Operators Association of India in a presentation to DoT said that this could result in unfair advantage to dual technology operators besides financial losses to the Government. COAI said that all forms of number portability should be introduced simultaneously and should be operated through the licensed agency.

The CDMA operators on the other hand have asked the Government to go ahead with its proposal to allow internal portability of numbers.

Once number portability is introduced, a mobile subscriber on Airtel network can go to Vodafone without having to give up the phone number. Once Vodafone gets a request from the subscriber, it is then routed through the MNP service provider, which then informs all the other operators about the switch of operator by the subscriber.

More Stories on : Telecommunications | Regulatory Bodies & Rulings

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