Indian Regulator Publishes Draft MNP Proposals

India's telecoms regulator, the TRAI has published its draft regulations for the forthcoming Mobile Number Portability in the country. The Authority had issued a consultation paper on MNP in July 2005 and submitted its recommendations to Department of Telecom (DoT) in March 2006. In these recommendations, the Authority had recommended implementation of MNP in the whole country in a phased manner, starting from Metros and A category service areas followed by B and C category service areas.

The DoT guidelines envisaged geographical division of the country into two Number Portability Zones (zone 1 & zone 2), each consisting of 11 licensed service areas. Subsequently, one operator in each zone was selected. Syniverse Technologies was granted licence for operating in Zone 1 (Northern and Western India) and MNP Interconnection Telecom Solutions was granted licence for MNP Service Zone 2 (Eastern and Southern India, based on the selection parameters set in the guidelines for MNP service license.

The DoT has granted license to these MNP service providers on 20th March, 2009 and TRAI is formulating business process for implementation of MNP in the country.

The TRAI says that it will bring a consultation paper on per- port transaction charges and dipping charges shortly and is seeking industry comment on its proposals by the 14th July.

On the web: TRAI

Posted to the site on 30th June 2009