The most awaited Mobile Number Portability or MNP is all set to get launched across India by March 2011. While the mobile service providers have already started appointing new people to manage the MNP process and tweak their existing system to integrate the MNP concept, people are really excited to have the opportunity to get rid of their existing operators, move to a new one, yet keep the same number.
The Mobile Number Portability might sound new to India, but it has been successfully implemented in various countries from 1997. Below is the list of countries where MNP has been made available since years:
- 1997 – Singapore
- 1999 – Hong Kong
- 2001 – Australia
- 2004 – South Korea
- 2005 – Taiwan
- 2007 – Pakistan
- 2010/2011 – India
Mobile Number Portability in India – FAQs
- Initially MNP was tested in Haryana with 8 operators – Airtel, Idea, BSNL, Aircel, Loop, Vodafone, Etisalat DB, & Videocon
- Mobile Number Portability is to be extended to more states in Dec 2010 & all nation by March 2011
- Users have to pay a maximum amount of Rs. 19, however, the actual cost depends on the operator and many vary
- Once you have ported to a new operator, you must stick with the new operator for a minimum period of 3 months before you can port again
- This service is available to both prepaid & postpaid customers, however, you cannot carry over any existing balances to the new operator
- Currently porting is possible within the state circle, which means that a Mumbai customer cannot port his number to Kolkata/Hyderabad, etc
Mobile Number Portability in India – How to
In case you want to use the Mobile Number Portability feature and port to a new operator:
- Send a SMS to 1900 in following format
- You will receive a SMS from your operator with an unique porting code
- SMS that unique porting code to your new preferred operator
- Your existing operator will check with the new operator and if you have no dues, the porting will be approved
- You will get a SMS with information like the time and date when the porting process will take place (The whole process should not take more than 4 days)
- Once porting is complete, you will get a new SMS from your new operator confirming the mobile number portability.
PORT <YOUR MOBILE NUMBER> , eg. PORT 9861055457
Your mobile phone might be dead for two hours during the porting process.
Mobile Number Portability in India – Pros and Cons
- The Indian telecom sector will see a huge change of subscribers in coming future
- Many advanced users would port to 3G enabled operators to avail this high-end service
- Surveys claim that 50% of Indians are not happy with the service quality offered by their operators, but they would love to change their operators if they are allowed to keep the existing number
- Service providers with better quality will get more number of customers while operators with poor quality will suffer the most
- Recently launched telecom operators (Videocon, Etisalat, STel, HFCL, Loop, Sistems, etc) will face more difficulties to hold existing customers
What do you think? Are you ready to take advantages of mobile number portability? Which operator would be able to grab more customers?
Read more: http://www.solidblogger.com/mnp-mobile-number-portability-in-india/#ixzz18OV3lepk
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