India finally gets Mobile Number Portability
Rohtak (Haryana) : India will finally get its Mobile Number Portability (MNP) service on Thursday.
MNP enables mobile users switch from one network operator to another without changing their old number.
After years of waiting, India?s MNP service will go live in Haryana on Thursday. The mobile service providers in the state at present are Airtel, Idea Cellular, BSNL, Aircel, Loop, Vodafone, Etisalat and Videocon.
However, the rest of the country will have to wait till March 2011 to avail the service.
“The circles don’t change. If you are in Karnataka, you are a Karnataka subscriber. If you shift from one state to another, roaming kicks in, just like it does right now,” said Director General, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) Rajan Mathews, as quoted by CNN-IBN news channel.
The mobile users (both pre-paid and post-paid) have to shell out a maximum of Rs 19 to change from one network to another.
?Here’s how you can shift. Send an SMS from your phone to 1900. Your present company will reply with a unique porting code. Use that code while filling out a detailed form for the company you want to shift to. Within 48 hours, that company will take over all your cell services,? said a CNN-IBN report.
Meanwhile, a Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) statement said: “The maximum time period for porting would become seven working days except in Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and North East licenced service areas, wherein it would be 15 working days.”
