To make Mobile Number Portability (MNP) easier and simpler for users, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has sped up the process of Mobile Number Portability. Under the new Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability (Seventh Amendment) Regulations, 2018, timeline for porting a mobile number to another service provider within the same circle is two days and for a different circle its four days.
The regulator also said that a telecom operator will be fined up to Rs 10,000 for any misinformation about portability and each wrongful rejection of a portability request. “If any access provider or mobile number portability service provider contravenes the provisions… (it shall) be liable to pay an amount, by way of financial disincentive not exceeding Rs 10,000 for each wrongful rejection of the request for porting,” TRAI said.
TRAI has also cut-short the validity period of Unique Porting Code (UPC) to four days from the previous 15 day period. The limitation has been revised for all Licensed Service Areas (LSA), except for the ones of Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and North-East. The validity of UPC in these areas remains unchanged. “For the cases of corporate porting, the present limit of 50 numbers in single authorisation letter has been enhanced to 100 numbers per authorisation letter. Post implementation of this regulation (amendment), appropriate Quality of Service (QoS) parameters will be devised by the authority to monitor the role of MNPSPs (Mobile Number Portability Service Providers) and Access Providers in the new scenario," the circular said. The process for withdrawal of porting requests has also been made simpler and quicker through SMS.