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Coming soon: Shift cities but keep your cellphone number [India Business] [Times of India](Times of India Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) NEW DELHI: Retaining your mobile phone number while shifting cities -- say from Delhi to Mumbai or Chennai to Kolkata -- is set to become a reality. National mobile number portability (MNP) -- that allows you to keep your number while moving base -- is set to be rolled out with the measure getting an in-principle approval from the inter-ministerial Telecom Commission. The measure's implementation now requires certain procedural clarifications that have been sought from regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). Once they are specified, the rollout will follow. Currently, you have to pay roaming charges if you use your number outside your home city. Also, you will be billed on STD rates for the calls. A full MNP will help you do away with these charges as your new city becomes your home base without any change in the phone number. READ ALSO: Mobile number portability crosses 100 million mark: Trai The telecom commission, the top decision-making body for telecom matters, met for the first time in the new Narendra Modi-led dispensation and cleared the much-awaited proposal that has been in the works for some time now. "An in-principle approval has been given to the move. Trai's final views are expected shortly, following which MNP will be rolled out nationally," an official source said. Trai had also given a go-ahead to the measure in its recommendations made in September last year. It had suggested national MNP rollout over the next six months, but this could not be implemented as the matter was pending with the telecom commission. Trai had said that operators will need around six months for making suitable changes in their networks to roll out national MNP. "Clarifications have been sought from Trai over some matters related to performance guarantee and charges. We hope to get a reply within 60 days, following which full MNP can be implemented," the source said. India has 22 circles or telecom zones. Syniverse Technologies and MNP Interconnection Telecom Solutions provide MNP service to all carriers in the present set-up. India currently allows intra-circle number portability, which means that you can retain your number even if you shift your mobile operator within the same city. READ ALSO: 2.6 million signed up for mobile number portability in March The issue of allowing one-number across the country was first raised in the National Telecom Policy-2012 and thereafter the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had in December 2012 tasked Trai to firm up policy recommendations on the subject. Trai had debated the matter threadbare and had sought views of various stakeholders on the manner of national MNP rollout. Also, it looked into the amendments that needed to be made in the existing regulations to enable its rollout. Intra-circle MNP was introduced for the first time in Haryana in November 2010 on a pilot basis and was launched all across the country on January 20, 2011. The move had seen subscribers shift from operator to another while retaining their number, after fulfilling some conditions. This gave people the freedom to easily shift from an operator in case he found his services unsatisfactory. Once full MNP is in place, subscribers will have to dial numbers in the '+91' format -- which is the standard dialling format -- so that the calls get connected across the country without any trouble. (c) 2014 Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited |