Good news for all the cellphone users. Now no need to send your new number to friends and all again and again!!Also if you have a favorite number you can retain it even if you change the service provider!
Indian mobile phone users will be able to retain their mobile numbers even if they switch service providers from Dec. 31, according to the Ministry of Communications & IT.
The new Mobile Number Portability (MNP) facility will be rolled out by then in the nation's four largest cities and some other service areas, with subscribers in other parts of the country getting the facility by March 20, the government said.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the country's telecom regulator, on Wednesday separately issued regulations for mobile number portability.
Introduction of the MNP will help increase competition between service providers and act as a catalyst for them to improve their quality of service, the TRAI said.
Under the guidelines proposed by the TRAI, mobile users will be allowed to use the same mobile number when they move to other service providers, even if these providers use different mobile technologies.
In India, the majority of subscribers are on networks using GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), with the rest using CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) technology.
The TRAI has ruled that subscribers should be allowed to retain their mobile numbers even if they are switching between the GSM and CDMA networks run by the same operator.
Requests for portability of mobile numbers to another network will only be allowed if the user has been a subscriber of a network for at least 90 days, according to TRAI. The facility of number portability will also be limited to a specific service area.
India has about 457 million mobile subscribers!
Sep 25, 2009
Number Portability in India by the end of this Year
