Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) here today released recommendations on ˜Full Mobile Number Portability (Pan-India Number Portability)™ in the country.
In accordance with the provisions contained in the National Telecom Policy-2012 regarding One Nation- Full Mobile Number Portability, TRAI received a reference from the DoT vide its letter dated 27th Dec 2012, seeking the recommendations of TRAI under TRAI Act for implementing full Mobile Number Portability i.e. MNP across licensed service areas.
In this regard, TRAI sought inputs /comments from stakeholders on various issues in the implementation of Full MNP such as suitable method for implementing inter-service area porting, issues relating to processing of porting requests, routing and charging of calls, amendments required in the existing license conditions of the MNP service license, generation of Unique Porting Code (UPC) by a roaming subscriber, modifications required in the present regulation etc.
From the comments received from the stakeholders, it was observed that there was a wide difference of opinion on the technical solution for implementation of Full Mobile Number Portability. To resolve the issue, meetings were held with the stakeholders and it was decided to constitute a ˜Focus Group™ consisting of representatives from MNP service providers and Telecom Service Providers to deliberate on the issue. After deliberations, the ˜Focus Group™ submitted its report to TRAI.
After examination of various issues, TRAI today released the recommendations on ˜Full Mobile Number Portability™. The salient features of the recommendations are following:
a) After the Full Mobile Number Portability (inter-service area portability) is implemented the Recipient Operator will forward the porting request to the MNPSP of the zone to which original number range holder (the Telecom Service Provider to which the number originally belonged before its first porting) belongs.
b) Telecom Service Providers will be given 6 months time for implementation of Full Mobile Number Portability.
c) Some modifications have been suggested to the MNP service licence, to facilitate inter-service area porting (Full MNP)
d) Testing Fee for testing the various scenarios in Full MNP may be reduced to 25% of the current prescribed Fee for TSPs and MNPSPs.
These recommendations are available on TRAI™s website www.trai.gov.in.
