National Mobile Number Portablity gets go-ahead

New Delhi: The highest decision making body in telecom department, Telecom Commission on Friday gave its in-principle approval to full mobile number portability which will allow a mobile subscriber to retain his number even if he moves from one state to another. Now reference will be send to Trai for additional information and clarification.

Last year in September, TRAI in its recommendation sent to the telecom ministry had said that the telecom operators be given six month to implement full mobile number portability. Allowing full mobile number portability was part of the National Telecom Policy-2012.

Currently mobile number portability is restricted within a service area. This means that presently subscribers can only change between operators within a service area. After full mobile number portability gets implement a subscribers will be able to change to another operator in other states also.

It was on December 2012 that telecom department had sought the views of Trai on implementation of full mobile number portability. Consumers have also been using the facility of partial number portability to change operators. The number of subscribers who have successfully ported their mobile number using mobile portability facility has reached 100 million mark.

It was on January 20, 2011 that MNP was launched by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Dr Singh had launched the service by making a call to former telecom minister Kapil Sibal from a ported number.

The Commission also approved another infrastructure project for improving phone services in North East states. The TRAI had estimated a project cost of around Rs 2,900 crore. The project will also be placed before the Cabinet for final approval.