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Follow UsAfter years of delays, Mobile Number Portability (MNP) is made
available all over India from January 20. Now you can dump your phone
company and move to a better one, while retaining your present number.
To shift, send an SMS from your phone to 1900. Your present company will
reply with a unique porting code. Use that code while filling out a
detailed form for the company you want to shift to. Within 48 hours,
that company will take over all your cell services. The fees, about
Rupees 19. Your cell number will be switched off for only one hour. All
bills after that, are paid to your new company. You'll be stuck with
them for at least 50 days before you can shift again, so choose with
care. While you can shift from a GSM service to CDMA or vice versa, you
cannot shift from one state to another. If you do, roaming kicks in,
just like it does right now. You can use number portability for any
post-paid as well as prepaid number.
In case of a post-paid number, there shouldn't be any dues. For a
prepaid number, carry forward of any balance to the new service provider
is not permitted. When you port your number, you also need to change
your SIM. Apart from retaining the same number, the process is same as
acquiring a new connection.
Dilip Modi, President, Assocham says, “Mobile Number Portability is a big milestone achieved by the Indian telecom industry today. It will surely result in healthy competition among the telecom players. MNP is a vigorous way of ensuring best quality to prevail in the market. Congestion free network coupled with attractive tariffs may be the strategy for some, while others may play around customer care and value added services. However, going by the policy of survival of the fittest, this initiative will raise the performance bar for all in the industry leading to greater customer focus”.
Deepak Gulati, Executive President, Mobility Business Division, Tata Teleservices says, “We have been strong advocates of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) for years and welcome the new regime that begins today. This is a beginning of an era which will give new direction to the Indian telecom industry-as a Tata Group company, we have always felt that the power of choice should be left to the customers. Customers should have the right to choose whichever service provider they find the best-and it is up to the operators to provide the best possible services to keep their customers loyal to them. MNP will be a great leveler, because it will liberate telecom users and give them the power of choice.” “As far as Tata Teleservices is concerned, we are sure our cutting-edge technology and a robust network will help us not only retain our more than 85 million happy and satisfied customers, but also gain the position of operator of choice in the new regime. TTL's MNP strategy will ride strongly on a simple tariff structure and strong customer care and service levels.”