New Delhi: Soon, you will be able to change your mobile service provider and still retain the same cellphone number.
In a move that promises to add further fuel to the cut-throat competition in the sphere of mobile telephony, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Wednesday recommended number portability for mobile users. The order will be impelmented within a year
Number portability means your mobile number remains same even if you change your mobile operator.
This is likely to bring in far better services and new benefits for the customers as the service providers will have to compete neck-and-neck in order to retain their customers in an open field.
The problem of constantly changing one's cellphone number has been the main deterent for mobile users in India in switching service providers.
The facility of number portability is already in practice in countries like Hong Kong, UK, Australia, US, Germany and France.
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The TRAI recommendations in this regard will now be submitted to the Department of Telecom (DoT), whose ratification is a must before number portability becomes a reality.
The number portability regime is expected to bring down prices and improve quality of services. In the new regime, the cost of network upgradation will, however, be passed on to the customers. Yet, market observers believe this will not have any significant impact on tariff as the cost will be very low.
Just days prior to his term coming to an end, Trai Chairman Pradip Baijal recommended one of the most crucial issues of number portability on mobile phones, saying the facility can be made available for a one-time payment of Rs 200.
Number protability will allow customers to switch operator while retaining the old number.
The regulator says the cost of Rs 200 payable by the customers will enable the operator to recover his investment cost in 3-5 years. Further, it has also recommended that initially MNP be introduced within the service area only.
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The Authority has come to the conclusion that this is not the appropriate time for introducing Fixed Number Portability.
Releasing the recommendations on mobile number portability, Trai said Mobile Number Portability (MNP) benefits subscribers, encourages improvement in quality of service through increased level of competition between service providers, rewarding those operators having better customer service, network coverage and service quality.
“Considering the present status of telecom services in India, Trai considers it an appropriate time to initiate process for implementing Mobile Number Portability so as to increase customer convenience, quality of service and further enhance competition among service providers in the Mobile sector, “ it said.
Understandably, the mobile operators in India have been opposing number portability. However, Trai thinks otherwise. "Number portability is inevitable in second-generation reforms in the arena," says Pradip Baijal, the Trai chairman.
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