The long awaited [yes for over 3 years] Mobile Number Portability is all set to go Live this Year, finally 🙂 TRAI just minutes ago issued complete guidelines on Eligibility, Consumer Rights, Operators Obligations for undergoing the same. Here is an excerpt,
- There is a time restriction of 90 days from the date of activation of his mobile connection, or, where such mobile subscriber number has been ported earlier, from the date of activation of his mobile subscriber number after the last such porting, as the case may be.
- Request for porting of mobile subscriber number shall be made in writing withe the necessary fees to the Recipient Operator or their agent
- Withdrawal of request for porting forfeits your fees paid to the Recipient Operator
- Recipient Operator has to do subscriber verification within 5 working days and forward the request for porting to the MNP Agency.
- MNP Agency verifies that the number satisfies the 90 day clause and forwards the request to Donor Operator[Existing]
- Donor Operator shall, within two working days, verify such details and communicate to the MNP Agency
- Assuming Donor Operator clears the Number for porting, Donor and Recipient operator fix tentative date and time to transfer the number. [There is an expected no service period during the porting exercise and callers to the number will be informed about the same]
- Grounds on Which your Existing Operator Can Reject the MNP Request – identity mismatch, number already disconnected, outstanding dues, 90 day clause is not satisfied and any legal / lawful objections
- MNP Agency will make all efforts to resolve expeditiously all inter-operator issues relating to the porting of mobile subscriber numbers
- Fees for the same is not yet fixed
- Time Limit for completing the entire procedure is also missing [maybe I should re-read the document] but what is evident is 5 + 2 working days in a sunny day scenario should be enough but don’t be surprised even if it takes 15 days as this will be a mess in the beginning.
Service will go live sometime in Sept-Oct this year for Metro and Category A Circles.