From May, switch operators and retain your number across India

If you’re moving to a new city, you will now be able to retain your mobile number even if you change your service provider. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has said that starting May 3, mobile users will be able to avail themselves of full mobile number portability (MNP) in any part of the country.

This is different from the existing system, which allows users to retain phone numbers only within a circle. For example, if an Airtel user in Delhi relocates to Chennai, he cannot retain the phone number.

This facility was to be launched by April 2014 but was delayed after telecom companies sought more time. On Wednesday, TRAI ordered operators to implement it by May 3. However, the telecom companies are still not sure if they can meet the deadline.

“We are moving as fast as we can. But, how much time it would take is tough to say right now,” said Rajan Mathews, Director-General, Cellular Operators Association of India.

Mobile operators will have to tweak their networks to be able to implement full MNP because until now a phone number was locked to a particular circle.

For example, a Delhi number, if used in Mumbai, is treated as a roaming subscriber under the existing system.

The real worry

More than the technical issues, the operators fear losing subscribers to rivals companies with better networks and lower tariffs in specific regions.

“While this is an excellent move from the consumer’s perspective, it could lead to higher customer churn for smaller operators. Pan-India operators would benefit as customers might retain them when they move from one circle to another. The other big issue would be on ground implementation challenges across the country,” said Hemant Joshi, partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells.

The limited version of MNP was first introduced in 2011. Since then nearly 140 million users have put in requests for a change in operator.

But even after three years, implementation is far from smooth. Consumers across the country have been complaining to TRAI against some operators who have declined porting requests even after they had fulfilled all the eligibility criteria. There have been instances when an operator has sought disconnection of a former customer’s number due to non-payment of outstanding dues, long after the subscriber had ported his number to another provider.

Regulator TRAI has therefore made it clear that the operator from whose network a user is porting out will have to raise a non-payment notice within 30 days from the due date of the outstanding bill.

TRAI said the donor operator would not be entitled to raise disconnection requests after 60 days had passed from the payment due date of the outstanding bill.

An Airtel user having a Delhi number can retain it if he relocates to any other part of the country.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Wednesday amended the much awaited mobile number portability (MNP) norms, which will now allow mobile users to use the same number pan India.

“TRAI has issued sixth amendment to the Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability Regulation, 2009, which will facilitate full MNP (pan India portability) in the country from May 3,” the regulator said in a statement.

At present, a customer is allowed to retain a number in the same circle or within a State. During the partial mobile number portability (within one circle), 142.98 million subscribers had submitted their requests for MNP as of December.

In December alone there were 3.49 million requests for MNP. According to TRAI, as of December, there are 943.97 million mobile subscribers in India, out of which the number of active wireless subscribers on the date of peak visitor location register in December was 833.02 million (88.25 per cent of the total wireless subscriber base).

Payment dues

Apart from facilitating pan-India portability, a few changes have also been made in the porting process. If a post-paid subscriber defaults in the payment due to the donor operator, the donor can now request the recipient operator to disconnect the ported mobile number.

“In many cases, the donor operator raises disconnection requests (due to non-payment of outstanding bill) long after the subscriber has ported his number. Therefore, there is a need to clarify this so that non-payment disconnection cases are settled in a timely manner by both the donor as well as the recipient operator to avoid any inconvenience to the subscriber at a later date,” TRAI said.

Accordingly, in the Amendment, a time period of 30 days from the due date of the outstanding bill has been specified for a donor operator to raise the non-payment notice to the subscriber who has defaulted in the payment.

It is also stipulated that after completion of 60 days from the due date of payment of the outstanding bill, the donor operator will not be entitled to raise non-payment disconnection requests with the recipient operator through the mobile number portability service provider.

The full mobile number portability was to be launched by April 2014 but was delayed due to the technicalities related to implementation and according to analysts, whether the operators will be able to meet the May 3 deadline or not remains to be seen.

“While this is an excellent move from consumer perspective, it could lead to higher customer churn rate for smaller players. Pan-India players would benefit as customers might retain operator when they move from one circle to another. The other big issue would be on the ground implementation challenges across the country,” said Hemant Joshi, partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells.

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