Regulator seeks telecom industry's views on number portability
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New Delhi: The country's telecom watchdog has sought the views of the industry stakeholders on mobile number portability (MNP) charges that will help decide what service providers and a customer should pay for switching operators. MNP once implemented will allow subscribers to retain their existing mobile number when they switch from one service provider to another or from one technology to another of the same service provider. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issued a consultation paper seeking the opinion of industry stake holders to determine the service charge. In the consultation paper various issues such as the role and functions of MNP operator, the network elements involved in the MNP process, estimation of subscriber base, MNP related cost details and information about implementation of MNP in different countries along with the porting fee charged there have been discussed. As per the service licence, there are three types of charges including the "per port transaction charge". This is the charge the recipient operator (the operator where the subscriber is willing to port his number) has to pay to the MNP service provider for processing the request. The second charge is porting charge - the charge payable by the subscriber for changing his service provider - and the third is dipping charge. In March, two MNP service providers were selected - Syniverse Technologies for north and western zone and MNP Interconnection Telecom Solutions for east and southern zone. TRAI has asked the industry to give their comments on this consultation paper by Aug 5.
Source: IANS
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