India’s telecom regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has fixed porting charges, the amount to be paid by subscriber for changing the operator while retaining the existing mobile number, at Rs 19. Analysts and industry were expecting charges to be around Rs 200 per porting of mobile number. The charges will come into force on December 31, 2009.
However, according to TRAI operators are free to levy “any amount less than or equal to this charge”, but cannot charge more than this price. Operators are also free to waive off porting fees.
The charges are part of the process of reigning in mobile number portability (MNP), a process that allows subscribers to retain their existing number while changing the operator.
“Per port transaction charge” means the charge payable by the recipient operator (the operator where the subscriber is willing to port his number) to the MNP service provider for processing the porting request of a mobile number.
According to TRAI: “The facility of retention of existing mobile telephone number despite moving to a new telecom service provider helps in increasing competition between the service providers and acts as a catalyst for the service providers to improve their quality of service”.
The mobile service providers and industry were expecting the government to mandate porting charges anywhere between Rs 75-100.
Subscribers in metros and category ‘A’ circles will be able to use mobile number portability service from December 31 and by March cross the country.
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