Porting from one telecom operator to another telecom operator has just become more affordable. Indian telecom watchdog, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has cut down the charges for Mobile Number Portability (MNP) by almost 79 percent to a maximum of Rs 4.
Earlier, if you were using MNP facility to move out from you’re existing telecom operator to another telco, you were charged at Rs 19. Starting today (31st January 2018) the telcos can only charge a maximum of Rs 4 for MNP from you.
The regulator has today issued a new directive under the “The Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability Per Port Transaction Charge and Dipping charge (Amendment) Regulations, 2018 (03 of 2018)” reducing the “Per Port Transaction Charge” of Rs 19 to R 4 for each successful porting.
MNP was started way back on 3rd May 2015 and the Pan India expansion of the service happened on 3rd July 2015. From start, the facility has seen an upsurge in the volume of porting requests. The authority considered this soaring volume of MNP request and at the same time observed that the costs involved in the operations of MNP service providers had substantially gone down. This lead to the decision by the regulator to reduce the charges of MNP.
“After taking into consideration the comments received from stakeholders and during consultation process and other relevant facts, the Authority has decided that the per port transaction charge may be reduced as the costs of operations of MNP service providers (MNPSPs) have substantially gone down and the volume of MNP traffic has increased” the regulator said in a statement.
With the new price ceiling by TRAI, subscribers cannot be charged more than Rs 4 while initiating MNP request. However, the recipient telecom operators are free to charge a lesser amount from the subscriber for MNP.