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Mobile Network Portability in India

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Mobile Network Portability In India: Your Mobile Network Can Change But Mobile Number Will Not Great news, folks. If you have waiting to switch your mobile service provider but have held back for the fear of having your mobile number changed, it’s time you welcome the change. Mobile Network Portability is now available in India. Officially launched by Mr. Kapil Sibal, Union Minister of Communications & Information Technology, Mobile Network Portability in India is now available in the state of Haryana. It is soon expected to grace all the leading networks across the country. Using this service, mobile phone users can now switch carriers (from Vodafone to Airtel or Idea to BSNL, etc.) without changing their mobile number. This means that if you are willing to avail Vodafone services on your Airtel number, for instance, you could request for your mobile  phon e numb er to be ported on Airtel or any other carrier of your choice. Mobile Number Portability isn’t new to the world of telecommunications . It has been around since the year 2001 (onwards) in numerous countries like Canada, Brazil, Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, Finland, Sweden, UK, USA and many others. Most of the countries provide this service for free. However there are limitations and terms & conditions that users are expected to oblige. In India, the change mobile number service would cost a one-time fee of just Rs. 19. Users who are willing to port their mobile numbers to the carriers of the choice will have to: 1. Confirm from their current/existin g service provider if it offers Mobile Number Portability. 2. If yes, type “PORT <own mobile number>” (without the quotes) and send it to 1900.
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Mobile Network Portability In India: Your Mobile Network 

Can Change But Mobile Number Will Not

Great news, folks. If you have waiting to switch your mobile service provider but have held back for the fear of havingyour mobile number changed, it’s time you welcome the change. Mobile Network Portability is now available in India.

Officially launched by Mr. Kapil Sibal, Union Minister of Communications & Information Technology, Mobile Network 

Portability in India is now available in the state of Haryana. It is soon expected to grace all the leading networks

across the country.

Using this service, mobile phone users can now switch carriers (from Vodafone to Airtel or Idea to BSNL, etc.) without

changing their mobile number. This means that if you are willing to avail Vodafone services on your Airtel number, for 

instance, you could request for your mobile phone number to be ported on Airtel or any other carrier of your choice.

Mobile Number Portability isn’t new to the world of telecommunications. It has been around since the year 2001

(onwards) in numerous countries like Canada, Brazil, Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, Finland, Sweden, UK,

USA and many others.

Most of the countries provide this service for free. However there are limitations and terms & conditions that users areexpected to oblige. In India, the change mobile number  service would cost a one-time fee of just Rs. 19.

Users who are willing to port their mobile numbers to the carriers of the choice will have to:

1. Confirm from their current/existing service provider if it offers Mobile Number Portability.

2. If yes, type “PORT <own mobile number>” (without the quotes) and send it to 1900.

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3. Users will receive a UPC porting code by SMS. Use this code in the CAF application form and MNP form and

submit it to the desired (new) service provider.

4. Once the carrier approves the request, it would take a minimum time of 2 hours to port your number to the new

carrier.

It is worth noting that your mobile phone will be “dead” during the course of porting which is believed to take place

between 10PM and 5AM to avoid any inconvenience to the users. Unfortunately, any prepaid balance on your 

existing network will not be carried forward.

MNP Launch Event - Haryana, India

Also, you can change carriers multiple number of times. However, one is required to use the changed/new network

carrier for a tenure of at least 3 months before option for another change.

There are numerous service providers in India, most popular and leading of which include Airtel, Vodafone, Tata,

IdeaCellular , BSNL, Reliance among others. Carriers may either charge you a niggling sum of Rs.19 or can even

wave off this fee – depends entirely on Carrier/your mobile service provider.

Reportedly, BSNL is providing this service free of Cost while other carriers may still engage the charges on this

service. Also, it is very important to note that Mobile Network Portability is rolling out in phases in India and will be

available full-fledged through January 2011.

Mobile Number Portability (MNP)Switch your mobile phone network and keep your existing number!What is mobile number portability (MNP)? Mobile number portability (MNP) is the process of 

transferring (porting) your mobile phone number from one mobile phone network provider to another. Youmay want to do this if you wish to sign up to a new mobile phone provider and keep your original mobilephone number, thus saving you the inconvenience of updating your contacts with your new telephonenumber. Mobile number porting is becoming increasingly popular worldwide due to the savings that can be

made by switching mobile phone providers in order to get a better mobile phone tariff...

Use our handy tool to port your mobile phone number

• First, select your country from the top menu

• Select your current mobile phone provider

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• Select your new mobile phone provider

• Click OK!

Will You Change your Operator When Mobile Number Portability is Introduced ?

Be advised that this is a public poll: other users can see the choice(s) you selected.

Poll OptionsWill You Change your Operator When Mobile Number Portability is Introduced ?

Yes, I will change

No, I am Happy with Existing one

Can't Say, Depends

Will you change your operator when mobile number portabilityis introduced?

This is a discussion on Will you change your operator when mobile number portability is introduced? within

the HOT Debates - The Big Fight forums, part of the Management Students Voices ( MBA,BMS,MMS,BMM,BBA)category; Will you change your operator when mobile number portability is introduced? Hey guys, As CellularOperators Association of India (COAI) ...

View Poll Results: Will You Change your Operator When Mobile Number Portability is Introduced ?

Yes, I will change 23 37.70%

No, I am Happy with Existing one 23 37.70%

Can't Say, Depends 15 24.59%

Voters: 61. You have already voted on this poll

Kartik Raichura Founder & CEO at Management Paradise

I'd definately be changing my current operator, DOLPHIN. The service sucks, the charges are too high and

the network gives me the creeps.

i would change my current operator........as maximum of my friends are using different network..and b'se of 

it i m charged a lot.......

HARIMOHAN COLLEGE

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I AM O WITH MY EXISTING CONNECTION BUT I THINK THIS THING WILL HELP THOSE WHO HAVE THE

MONEY TO KEEP CHANGING THEIR OPERATORS

i will definitely change my operator if it happens. as this will provide us th opportunity to select the cheap

and the best operator with the same number.

YES ! I current have a vodafone connecttion the prices are too steep man, i will definitely look for

better options

 kunnal-khalsa yes that would really help us in lot many ways and revoltionized the ltelecom industry

i m dnt even wether i shud switch to another operater or not bcoz we hve all the sims t home none of its

work well so dnt know

Mobile number portability (MNP) enables mobile telephone users to retain their mobile telephone

numbers when changing from one mobile network operator  to another.

General overview

MNP is implemented in different ways across the globe. The international and European standard is for a

customer wishing to port his/her number to contact the new provider (Recipient) who will then arrange

necessary process with the old provider (Donor). This is also known as 'Recipient-Led' porting. The UK is

the only country to not implement a Recipient-Led system, where a customer wishing to port his/her 

number is required to contact the Donor to obtain a Porting Authorisation Code (PAC) which he/she then

has to give to the Recipient. Once having received the PAC the Recipient continues the port process by

contacting the Donor. This form of porting is also known as 'Donor-Led' and has been criticised by some

industry analysts as being inefficient. It has also been observed that it may act as a customer deterrent as

well as allowing the Donor an opportunity of 'winning-back' the customer. This might lead to distortion of 

competition, especially in the markets with new entrants that are yet to achieve scalability of operation.

[edit]Technical details

A significant technical aspect of MNP (Mobile Number Portability) is related to the routing of calls or 

mobile messages (SMS, MMS) to a number once it has been ported. There are various flavours of call

routing implementation across the globe but the international and European best practice is via the use of a central database (CDB) of ported numbers. Network operator makes copies of CDB and queries it to

find out which network to send a call to. This is also known as All Call Query (ACQ) and is highly efficient

and scalable. Majority of the established and upcoming MNP systems across the world are based on this

ACQ/CDB method of call routing. One of the very few countries to not use ACQ/CDB is the UK where

calls to a number once it has been ported are still routed via the Donor network. This is also known as

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'Indirect Routing' and is highly inefficient as it is wasteful of transmission and switching capacity. Because

of its Donor dependent nature, Indirect Routing also means that if the Donor network develops a fault or 

goes out of business, the customers who have ported out of that network will lose incoming calls to their 

numbers. The UK telecoms regulator Ofcom completed its extended review of the UK MNP process on 29

November 2007 and mandated that ACQ/CDB be implemented for mobile to mobile ported calls by no

later than 1 September 2009[dated info], and for all other (fixed and mobile) ported calls by no later than 31

December 2012.

Prior to March 2008 it took a minimum of 5 working days to port a number in the UK compared to 2 hours

only in USA, as low as 20 minutes in the Republic of Ireland, 3 minutes in Australia and even a matter of 

seconds in New Zealand. On 17 July 2007, Ofcom released its conclusions from the review of UK MNP

and mandated reduction of porting time to 2 working days with effect from 1 April 2008. On 29 November 

2007, Ofcom completed its consultation on further reduction to porting time to 2 hours along with recipient

led porting and mandated that near-instant (no more than 2 hours) recipient led porting be implemented

by no later than 1 September 2009.

In a decentralised model of MNP, a FNR (Flexible Number Register) may be used to manage a database

of ported out/ported in numbers for call routing.

[edit]Number Lookup Services

Service providers and carriers who route messages and voice calls to MNP-enabled countries might use

HLR query services to find out the correct network of a mobile phone number. A number of such services

exist, which query the operator's home location register (HLR) over the SS7 signalling network in order to

determine the current network of a specified mobile phone number prior to attempted routing of 

messaging or voice traffic.

Mobile number portability by country

USA2003.11.2

40 free MNP procedure takes 2 hours.

India2010.11.2

57 19

Customers can port between prepay and post pay options. The master 

database will be managed by a third party firm. For zoneI, Syniverse has been appointed with the MNP and related issueswhile for zone II, it is Telcordia. Visit TechWek for Details or readmore on How MNP works in India at Pluggd.in

Germany

2002.11.01

4 workingdays + 2

EUR  25

The average price charged is about € 25. The exact amount dependson the old provider. A price limit of € 30.72 was set by

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further days the Bundesnetzagentur.

United Kingdom 1999.01.?? 2 working days + 1 calendar week Free

Adoption: 7-10% PostPaid Users To Choose MNP?

Telcos predicted that the around 0.5% -20% of mobile subscribers would chose to use mobile

number portability. Two unnamed marketing research organisations conducted surveys (one could

be AC Neilsen, survey here) predicting the porting rate will be from 10-20% for pre-paid subscription,and upto 50% for post paid subscription. TRAI itself has estimated the porting rate to be at 10% in

the first 15 months and 7%, 6% and 5% for the successive three years.

What’s also strange about this presumption is that it appears that the TRAI expects only post-paid

consumers to use Mobile Number Portability. Keep in mind that India has entered a multi-SIM era,

with pre-paid subscribers also using multiple SIM cards. Idea Cellular had estimated India’s multiple

SIM usage as high as 20% of the subscriber base.

Keep in mind, though, that the Post-paid ARPU is believed to be substantially higher than pre-

paid, as was mentioned in the FICCI-BDA report released earlier this year:

Rules & Criteria For Applying For Mobile Number Portability InIndia

India’s telecom regulator  TRAI has finally announced the framework and rules of mobile number 

portability, which will allow mobile users to retain their mobile number while shifting to a new cellular 

service provider.

India had 456.74 million mobile connections as of August 2009and is adding 12-15 million every

month. With 13 operators, the regulations for mobile number portability at this scale had to be robust

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and airtight. After inviting opinions and comments (a list of comments can be found here) from the

various stakeholders of the ecosystem, TRAI has come up with a framework that might be a little

constrictive for the consumer, but it does not go easy on the operators either.

(Updated) When will Mobile Number Portability Be Operational?

Update: Please read our post 3G Auctions & Mobile Number PortabilityIn India Delayed?

Older: Subscribers in metros and category ‘A’ service areas (Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala,

Maharashtra & Goa and Andhra Pradesh) will be able to apply for mobile number portability starting

this new year’s eve. Others in B and C class cities will have to wait for 3 more months (March 20,

2010, to be precise) to be able to shift to a new network. They will be missing out on the deals and

promotions being offered in the meantime and the launch of new telco Uninor (the recently renamed

Unitech Wireless) which is expected end of year.

Criteria For Applying For MNP, 3 Month Rule

MNP facility shall be available only within a given licensed service area. So if you are moving toanother city and want to retain your mobile number, MNP is not the answer. Mobile users may only

apply for MNP if they want to switch networks in the same area where their existing mobile number 

is registered.

Our Take: This reduces the relevance and convenience for a consumer – why should portability be

limited by service area? India has a migrating population of urban consumers who switch cities when

they change a job. Why not relieve them of the inconvenience of changing numbers? 

The 3 Month Rule. A subscriber is eligible to make a porting request only after 90 days of the date of 

activation of his mobile connection. If a number is already ported once, the number can again be

ported only after 90 days from the date of the previous porting. TRAI has explained that this

minimum period is required so as to enable the service provider to recover the customer acquisition

cost.

Our Take: There are two sides to this – in the first instance, a consumer who is dissatisfied with an

operators service in the first month itself is being forced to suffer for another two months. On the

other hand, it will prevent a situation where consumers take undue advantage of freebies from

operators as a reason for constantly switching.

Disconnected: After porting of a mobile number, if it remains disconnected for 90 days, it will be

reversed back to the number range holder (original operator).

Whom To Approach? SMS the operator to which you want to switch and ask for your unique porting

code, which is an alphanumeric code allocated upon request. Operators have been directed to setup a mechanism (a shortcode) to receive the SMSs and respond with the unique porting code.

Subscribers will also have to give in writing their request to the operator to which they are switching

and fill up a customer acquisition form, which the operator will verify.

Operator’s Task: After verifying the porting code, identity and address of the user, the recipient

operator (which the subscriber is joining) has to forward details to the mobile number portability

service provider within 24 hours.The operator has to pay a ‘per port transaction’ charge for each

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request forwarded by it to the MNP provider. They would have to examine the request carefully as

there is no provision for refund of porting charges from the MNP provider.

Download: TRAI’s Regulations For Mobile Number Portability

Price? Users will have to pay a porting charge to the operator to which you are switching. The price

has not been fixed yet and could be anywhere between Rs. 20 to Rs. 200. You will not need to pay apenny to the operator you are leaving.

No Dues. The subscriber making the porting request should clear all the bills issued prior to the date

of porting request. He shall provide a written undertaking that he has already paid all billed dues as

on the date of the request for porting and that he shall pay dues to the operator till its eventual

porting. In the event of non-payment of any such dues to, the ported mobile number shall be liable to

be disconnected.

Prepaid Users: Upon porting of the mobile number, the balance amount of talk time at the time of 

porting shall lapse.

Legal Criteria. MNP will not be permitted if there is a pending request for change of ownership of themobile number; if it is sub-judice and if the porting has been prohibited by a court. In case a

subscriber has not complied with exit clauses in his contractual obligations, the request can be

rejected.

Changed My Mind. A subscriber may withdraw his porting request within 24 hours of its submission.

However, the porting charges are not refundable.

Routing: Once the donor operator has disconnected the mobile number and the recipient operator 

has activated it, the MNP provider allocates the corresponding Location Routing Number to the

ported number in the Number Portability Database and broadcasts the updated Location Routing

Number along with the ported mobile number to all Access Providers and International Long

Distance Operators who shall update their respective Local Number Portability Database.

Per Port Transaction Charges: Recipient operators have to pay the MNP provider per port

transaction charges on a monthly basis.

Interconnect Agreements: All existing interconnect agreements and arrangements between Access

Providers, National Long Distance Operators and

International Long Distance Operators shall stand amended so as to conform to the provisions of 

these regulations as regards routing of calls to and from ported mobile numbers.

How Long Will It Take? The porting process will take a maximum time period of 4 days in all

licensed service areas except in the case of J&K, Assam and North East where the maximum time

allowed is 12 days. Weekends are excluded from this time frame.

No Service Period: The window period for disconnection and activation by operators has been kept

at one hour each, so the maximum downtime for the subscriber will be two hours.


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