Mobile Number Portability
Now Keep Your Number, Change Your Telecom Service Provider
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today flagged off nation-wide Mobile Number Portability, a service that allows subscribers to change service provider while retaining the number.
This would benefit over 700 million subscribers, both in GSM and CDMA categories in the country.
The new policy would force the operators to shift focus from acquiring new subscribers to retaining the existing ones.
All that a customer needs to do for changing his telecom operator is pay a maximum of Rs 19. He/she will get a new service provider within seven working days as per the guidelines of regulator TRAI.
“Till now, operators were competing to acquire new subscribers. But launch of MNP will force them to offer innovative and quality services to retain their subscribers,” Singh said .
The Prime Minister marked the launch of the service by making a call to Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal who was seated next to him.
MNP services were first launched in Haryana in November last year and according to industry estimates, less than one per cent subscribers opted for changing their operators.
