Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday said nationwide Mobile Number
Portability (MNP) is expected to be rolled out by February 2013, which
will allow users to retain their numbers even if they move from one
State to another.
“For the timely implementation of the National Telecom Policy 2012, the
Department of Telecom has finalised broad agenda for next three months
from December 2012 to February 2013,” Mr. Sibal said at India Telecom
2012 meeting in New Delhi.
Some of the key initiative in course to be completed by February 2013
are approval of spectrum assignment and pricing, unified licences
regime, M&A guidelines, finalisation of guidelines for spectrum
sharing, creation of fund for R&D and manufacturing and of course,
MNP on a nationwide basis, he added.
Currently, a user is allowed to switch to a different operator within his/her circle, while retaining his/her phone number.
Under NTP 2012, the government had envisaged implementing MNP on a
nationwide level allowing users to retain their mobile numbers even when
they shift to a different telecom circle.
India has 22 telecom circles.
According to Trai, by the end of October 2012, about 75.14 million
subscribers have submitted their requests to different service providers
for porting their mobile number.
In the month of September 2012, total number of subscribers who have submitted their request for MNP stood at 5.36 million.
