Govt denies BSNL's 1000 Crore reparation plea for MNP

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New Delhi: The government has denied state run telecom operator BSNL's plea for a compensation of 1,000 crore to implement the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) regime that allows users to transfer their cell phone numbers from one operator to another. It is likely that the state-run operator would miss the deadline of December 31 set by the government to launch the MNP system in the metros, reports PTI. "With regard to the compensation to BSNL to the tune of 1000 crores which the PSU had sought, as per the extant instructions, all service providers have to implement MNP at their own cost and no compensation is to be provided to any operators", said a Senior Department of Telecom Official. BSNL and MTNL, had earlier informed the government about their inability to implement the MNP system before April for a number of reasons like limited time to tweak the technology, tariff plans and billing among others. The two telecom operators are in the process of purchasing MNP Gateways, and MTNL has floated a limited tender for MNP. In comparison, private service providers are at various stages of implementing the MNP.