The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has announced new MNP (mobile number portability) rules. It believes it will significantly cut down the time taken to move from one operator to another. According to an official memo published online by the regulator, the revised rules will make the process fast and more convenient for mobile subscribers in the country.
As part of the rules, the portability will now manage the port request and not the mobile services operator. According to TRAI, the entire process now will be completed within 3 days. Although the time duration for users, porting within their circle, instead of the 5 days it used to take earlier. Time taken for inner-circle portability will also reduce significantly and will now be completed within 5 days.
Do note that the carriers will have to update their backend infrastructure to comply with the new regulations, which means the MNP system will not be available from December 10 to December 15. However, the requests that have already been submitted will remain valid and will continue to be processed during this time. The revised MNP regulations will come into force from December 16th.
The attempt to cut down the time taken to port from one operator to another is a welcome move from TRAI. As it stands today is a major hassle for users. That’s why most decide to give the process a miss and get a new number instead. However, the changes will have the desired result and help people port their mobile numbers relatively faster.
