New rules in place for mobile number portability

You no longer have to wait for a week to port your mobile number. With the new regulations, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has made the mobile number portability (MNP) system easier than before. The new rules will be applicable from Monday.

Are you eligible?

You no longer have to wait for a week to port your mobile number. With the new regulations, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has made the mobile number portability (MNP) system easier than before. The new rules will be applicable from 16 December.

The telecom regulator will generate a Unique Porting Code (UPC) only when a subscriber is eligible to port his/her mobile number. Trai will decide whether a customer is eligible for a mobile number portability or not. Here are a few conditions that Trai has listed:

1) Those who use post-paid service have to clear the 'outstanding dues' of the current telecom operator for the issued bill according to the normal billing cycle.

2) User will have to use the active connection of any mobile operator for at least 90 days.

3) Your number will not be eligible for portability if you have already made a request to change the ownership of your mobile number.

4) The porting of the mobile number should not be prohibited by the court of law.

5) If your mobile number is sub-judice, you won't be able to port it.

6) "There should not be any pending contractual obligations to be fulfilled by the subscriber as per the exit clause provided in the subscriber agreement," said Trai.

Unique Porting Code or UPC will be valid for four days for all the places except Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and North East. The UPC will be available for 30 days in Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and North East.

Cost: The telecom regulator will charge ₹6.46 as transaction fee for each porting request.

For individual users, the porting request shall not be rejected till the validity of UPC, said Trai. Corporate mobile number users need to submit a valid authorisation letter issued by the corporate entity for porting a number.

To port a number within the same circle, it will take up to three working days. If the porting is for another circle, it will be executed within five days.