Mobile number portability from Sept 20

Come September, cellphone users in some parts of the country, including the four major metros—Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai—will be allowed to switch operators even while retaining their existing number. DoT has issued a notification saying, “mobile number portability is to be implemented in Delhi, Mumbai, Maharashtra and Gujarat service areas of Zone 1 and Kolkata, Tamil Nadu, Chennai, Andhra and Karnataka of Zone 2 within six months of award of licence by September 20, 2009, and in the rest of the country by March 20, 2010’’. Syniverse Technologies (Zone 1) and MNP Interconnection (Zone 2) are the two companies who have been licenced by DoT to carry out the MNP exercise. DoT has further said that Trai will decide on all kinds of tariffs related to MNP, like transaction fee for seeking change of number. But sources said number portability charges are likely to be below Rs 300 and it will take maximum two days to change the service provider. Trai is learnt to be keen to keep the cost at a reasonable level so as not to discourage subscribers willing to change their service provider.