New Mobile Number Portability rules to be effective from today

Indian telecom regulator, TRAI has revised the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) process. The new rules will come to effect from today.

In the revised MNP process, the Unique Porting Code (UPC) will be generated only when the subscriber is eligible to port-out his mobile number.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in a press release said that the UPC will be generated after positive validation of certain conditions.

One of them states that in case of post-paid mobile connection, the subscriber has to ensure clearance of ‘outstanding dues’ towards the existing telecom service provider for the issued bills as per normal billing cycle. Another parameter is that activation in the present operator’s network is not less than 90 days. A third condition is that there should not be any pending contractual obligation(s) to be fulfilled by the subscriber as per the exit clause in the subscriber agreement. Conditions include that porting of the mobile number is not prohibited by court of law and the number sought to be ported is not sub judice.

There is no change in the porting timelines for the corporate mobile connections. UPC will be valid for four days for all Licensed Service Areas except Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and North East circles where it will remain valid for 30 days.

“As the existing MNP system shall migrate to new MNP process with effect from 16 December, facility of MNP will not be available from December 10 to December 15 and Unique Porting Code will also not be generated during the migration period. However, the porting requests already submitted will continue to be processed,” TRAI said on Tuesday.