The telecom department may ask the sector regulator to reconsider some of its recommendations on full mobile number portability that suggest changes in license norms while mandating telcos to introduce nationwide MNP by April 2014, as per a draft letter seen by ET.
Widening its spat with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India beyond the issue of pricing airwaves in the 800 Mhz band, DoT has asked Trai to reconsider its views such that they can implement full mobile number portability (MNP) countrywide. It has further sought recommendations on issues including entry fee and rollout obligations in the existing MNP license.
Back in September this year, Trai had mandated mobile phone companies to implement full MNP within six months. MNP allows a subscriber to retain his mobile telephone number when he moves from one service provider to another.
Trai had finalised a method for processing cross-circle porting requests under which a carrier that receives a porting request from a circle, for instance Delhi, forwards it to the MNP provider that oversees this circle. Future porting requests of this number that may be within a circle or to another circle will be handled by the same MNP provider.
Under this approach, Trai had said that no interconnection between the MNP providers was required, leading to minimal costs for installing this system. Trai has asked DoT to make changes in the existing MNP licences and its own instructions issued in May 2009 to implement MNP in India.
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