Mobile Number Portability Features,Mobile Number Portability Criteria,Mobile Number Portability Rules

Mobile number Portability (MNP) was in news from long time but TRAI ( Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has finally confirmed that it will come into effect from 1st January 2010. So, it will be a Happy new Year for Mobile users in India.

MNP allows subscribers to retain their existing mobile Telephone Operator when they move from one service provider to another in a licensed service area, irrespective of the Mobile Technology. It is thus a highly consumer-friendly initiative as it helps increase competition between service providers, catalyzing improved quality of service.

Features of MNP

1. MNP facility shall be available only within a given licensed service area.- You cannot retain the same number if you are moving to another City. Really an inconvenient feature and what about the consumers who switch cities when they change a job?
2. A subscriber holding a mobile number is eligible to make a porting request only after 90 days of the date of activation of his mobile connection. If a number is already ported once, the number can again be ported only after 90 days from the date of the previous porting.- If a Consumer is dissatisfied in first month after switching to another provider, he still have to suffer for rest of 2 months. But, it has good take too that it will prevent users from running after freebies and constantly switching.

How to apply for porting?

The Subscriber who wishes to port his mobile number should approach the Recipient operator (the operator to whom the subscriber wants to port his number) and obtainunique porting code, which is an alphanumeric code allocated upon request. Subscribers will also have to give in writing their request to the operator to which they are switching and fill up a customer acquisition form, which the operator will verify.

The Subscriber may be required to pay porting charges, if any, to the Recipient Operator. The Prices are not yet fixed however, it is estimated to be between 20 to 100Rs.

Applying Criteria for MNP

For Prepaid users : The Balance amount of talktime will not be carried over to new provider and it will lapse.

For Postpaid subscribers : The subscriber making the porting request is required to have cleared all the bills issued prior to the date of porting request.

Other Rules of MNP

Change of Mind? A subscriber may withdraw his porting request within 24 hours of its submission to the Recipient Operator. However, the porting charges shall not be refundable.

How long will it take? The porting process will take a maximum time period of 4 days in all licensed service areas except in the case of J&K, Assam and North East where the maximum time allowed is 12 days.

Any downtime? Yes, Disconnecting from current network and activation of new Cellular Provider will include No service period of 2 hours.

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Number Portability Act for Mobile Number Portability in India-Number Portability Rules

It is the technique in which the customer can change the operator of the mobile Phone. But customer should have remain previous mobile number. This is done by the central database system. All Call Query technique is used for the mobile porting and it is very efficient way to communicate without changing the number. In the porting option is available to the mobile customer from20/1/2011.The Idea Cellular Service launching this services all around the country. The customer will wait for the seven days for porting or to change the Service Provider without changing number. The cost paid by the customer is only Rs.19 which is deducted for changing the service provider. Once the customer change the service provider of phone then he should not Switch to the other service provider until 3 Months. Customer can switch from CDMA to GSM and prepaid to postpaid or vice verse though the Mobile Number Portability. The operator will be change only after completing all the dues of previous operator. The customer should have change the SIM Card for the new service provider. But the Mobile number of the customer will not be change after the switching to new provider. The largest service provider in country BSNL provide the Mobile Number Portability at free of cost. The Porting is not applicable within the outer circle, it will be used only in the intern circle. During transferring the service provider the phone is dead .At least 4 hours the phone is dead but it is mostly at night.

Steps In Mobile Number Porting in India:

1.The customer should send the message to 1900 as PORT< 10 digit Mobile Number>
2.The customer will get the SMS of unique porting Code and it is valid for the 2 days. If the costumer want another code it will be given after expiration of the previous Code.
3.You should apply to the new service provider within the time with this Unique code by filling the registration form of the new service provider.
4.The new service provider will take the permission of the previous service provider .Then new operator give the time for porting.
5. On the set time and date the previous service provider will disconnect the number from his service.
6.Then the new service provider will claim to this mobile number and give the new SIM and activate the previous mobile number.

Now customer can enjoy the new services provided by the new operator like 3G,better Network with the same number existing earlier . 

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Number Portability in India-Number Portability Overview-Number Portability Solution

With mobile number portability ( MNP )) becoming operational from Thursday, telecom consumers now have the choice of switching their operator without having to change their mobile number. This facility is available to both postpaid and prepaid customers and subscribers of GSM as well as CDMA service. The only restriction is that you can change your operator without changing your number only within your current service area. Which means subscribers cannot take their Delhi number to an operator in Mumbai . They can only change their operator within Delhi. 

The cost of porting a number to a new operator is Rs 19, with the maximum porting time capped at 7 working days by telecom regulator Trai except in Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and North East service areas, where it will be 15 working days. However , consumers will have to remain with the new operator for three months before moving on. 

Number portability has been delayed by three years, leaving many consumers anxious . Several subscribers, who feel disappointed with billing, customer care, and overall service delivery, have been waiting for this moment . But the real question is whether you should take the plunge and switch loyalties or not. Will the switch really be worth your trouble? 

The real reason for change would be to access better quality of service or improved customer care and of course, the proposition of a better tariff package. This, however,will occur only if operators believe that the churn out of their subscriber base will be so high that they need to improve their service or customer care, etc. However , surveys have revealed that the net effect of number portability is practically negligible . This means most large operators gain and lose roughly the same number of subscribers, taking away any incentive to dramatically change quality of service or customer care or pricing owing to the threat of losing subscribers or the option of gaining subscribers. 

For the consumer, this could mean you might switch your operator, but based more on a perception of improvement rather than a real difference. Trai’s September 2009 data suggests that at a pan-India level, the call set up success rate was upwards of 97.26%—the lowest being in UP (East) and the highest at 99.99% in Mumbai . Similarly the call drop rate according to Trai is less than 3% across the country with the highest at 1.9% in Rajasthan and the lowest at 0.42% in Orissa. In fact, the difference between GSM and CDMA operators is also negligible . 

Further, all operators across the country score upwards of 90% with regards to the parameter called connection with good quality voice with the highest in UP West (CDMA) at 99.99% and the lowest in UP East (GSM) at 95.1%. It is also a well established fact that tariffs are extremely competitive and so moving to a dramatically lower bill is unlikely. 

Some consumers who are frequent callers, an equivalent of closed user group—or family members who are currently on different networks could now move to single network to take advantage of attractive tariff packages, including free calls within the same network, etc.But before you make any switch check whether your operator is providing a similar option.

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Mobile Number Portability Benefits, Benefits of Mobile Number Portability in India

Mobile Number portability in India is poised to be a thing of immense magnitude. The cell phone market in India is growing by leaps and bounds and it is believed that by 2012, India will have crossed 893 million cell phone subscribers and 1,243 million mobile subscribers in 2015. With the proliferation of cell phone network operators, Mobile Number Portability in India is going to grow leaps and bounds as has been in the Western World including the US.

India boasts of the lowest cell phone tariff rates in the world, with the lowest average rate per usage being $3 per subscriber per month. The Cellular Operators Association of India has stated that every 10 percent rise in the mobile penetration rate can translate into 1. 2 percent higher growth rate. Apart from the intense tariff war, the Mobile Number Portabillity in India and 3 G services are the next battle grounds for network providers to compete.

Benefits of Mobile Number Portability:

1. As a user, you can leave one mobile network and go to another one, if you are not satisfied with the service. Your mobile number remains the same; you just change to a better mobile network, that appeals to you.  The customers also does not lose his/her old numbers and contacts.
2. Increased competition among network providers to retain customers. The competing network will try to induce the user to switch to them while the existing network will try to retain its customer base and keep you, the customer, happy by providing better options. Ultimately, it is the customer's decision whether he/she wants to port the number or not.
3. Expect more rate cuts, better services and other frills in the MNP environment
4. MNP in India would lead to better quality services and a change in the in the attitude of the operators towards addressing grieance to retain subscribers. At the outset at least 15-20% would like to shift to alternate operators with attractive plans. There are some network operators who will plan to aquire high net worth individuals who earlier didn't want to switch to another operator as they didn’t want to change the number.

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