Too slow the 4G or frequent call drop? Come 16th December 2019 and you won’t need more than three days to port out your mobile number from your existing telecom provider to another better telecom operator. India’s telecom watchdog Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has revised MNP process and that’s when it will come into full effect.
If you remember the existing MNP (Mobile Number Portability) process, once your request for MNP porting out, a telecom operator had 15 days to do so. During this period most of the telecom operators try to lure with exclusive mobile plans to stay with them or entirely block the port out request citing excuses like non-payment of some dues. Escaping from all this, you still need to wait a whole week to port out to a new service provider.
This long waiting periods and time-consuming process are going to change now. TRAI has reduced the role of telecom operators and given the decision making power to Mobile Number Portability Service Provider or MNPSP. They will pre-validate the eligibility conditions for porting and will determine the generation of UPC. Unique porting code (UPC) is an eight-digit alphanumeric number that you get when sending an SMS to ‘1900’ to start the porting request.
“This shall ensure smooth porting in the new framework, thus making the porting process faster and convenient to the mobile subscribers,” said TRAI in a statement.
As per the new rules, the validity of UPC has been reduced to 4 days for all Licensed Service Areas (LSAs), barring the LSAs of Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and North East, where the validity of UPC will still be 30 days.
MNP request within a telecom circle will be completed in 3 working days. Whereas, MNP request outside of your telecom circle (like moving from Bangalore to Delhi) will be completed in 5 working days. Five days are needed for porting out corporate numbers.
MNP newest rules
- Pre-validation of eligibility conditions for porting will determine the generation of UPC by the Mobile Number Portability Service Provider (MNPSP).
- The validity of UPC reduced to 4 days for all telecom circles (barring Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and North East, where validity will still be 30 days.)
- Porting request within a telecom circle will be completed in three days.
- Porting request from one telecom circle to another telecom circle will be completed in five days.
- MNP request for corporate numbers (within the same telecom circle or change of telecom circle) will take five days.
In the latest telecom subscription data dated as on 30th September 2019, a total of 5.39 million subscribers submitted requests for MNP. With this, the cumulative MNP requests touched 457.65 million at the end of September 2019.