Mobile no. portability likely by Dec 1: Trai

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said on Tuesday mobile subscribers can probably avail the facility of changing service providers while retaining the numbers by December 1.

"The due date is September 20, 2009. Recently, the Department of Telecommunication has taken a review. They seem to be under the impression that it would take a few more months.

"My own guess is that, we would be coming out with our regulations before the end of this month. Thereafter, some more time will be taken for the MNP operators to come up with their own systems," Trai chairman J S Sarma told PTI in Hyderabad.

Trai is working on regulations and on the charges for mobile number portability service. The DoT issued guidelines for MNP implementation in August last year and in March next, two US companies -- Syniverse and Telcordia -- were selected as technology providers for the implementation.

"What I am given to understand and what we have written to the DoT is that some of the operators do not seem to have ordered even for the gateways. So, that will take a delay of 2-3 months. Overall, my feeling is that we should be able to bring in number portability by December 1," Sarma said.

Sarma was speaking on the sidelines of an Open House Discussion on 'Determination of Port Transaction Charge, dipping charge and porting charge for MNP' organised by Trai.