The department of telecommunications said on Thursday that the names of the successful bidders for the grant of mobile number portability licences would be announced in the first week of March.

Communications minister A Raja in a statement to the Rajya Sabha on Thursday said, "MNP service licences will be announced by March 5, 2009. They will also be issued letters of intent by this date."

The chosen agencies will act as a clearing house to allow mobile users to seamlessly change their operator without changing their number.

In its guidelines, the DoT had divided the country into two circles comprising 11 circles each for which one MNP operator each would be selected.

The government, which has received flak for delaying the number portability process, said on Thursday that there is no delay in implementation of number portability.

According to the DoT guidelines issued in August last year, MNP is expected to be implemented in all metros and Category 'A' service areas within six months of the award of the licence, while the rest of the country will have the service within one year of the award of the licence.

The tender for the tender was floated on November 25 last year subsequent to which few names were shortlisted and the selection of the agencies will take place next week.