In a telecom industry which is going through many waves and cycles, the consumers are finding it hard to stick with one telecom operator. A while ago, Reliance Jio had all the attention of the subscribers in the telecom industry. However, that has changed recently as the Mukesh Ambani led telecom operator introduced IUC based talk time on calls to other networks. After that, the subscribers are now in the lookout for different options. Whereas, some of the other subscribers simply want to switch their operator for better services. Whatever be the cause, the common threat between all these customers is mobile number portability (MNP). In a scenario where the subscribers do not want to change their number but want to change their operator, MNP comes to the rescue. However, in the last few months, the issue of MNP has also been taken up for discussion, and new rules are in the making for this process as well. But, the subscribers should be relieved that these new rules are largely good for them. With that being said, here are some things that you must know about MNP right now.
Advantages of New MNP Rules
The first thing about the Mobile Number Portability new rules is the fact that the subscribers would now be experiencing lesser wait times when they go for porting their SIM. Previously, the wait time for MNP used to be a week. The customers trying to port from one operator to another had to wait 7 days to get their SIM ported, and in the middle of this, there was also a period of no service for the subscribers. Now, in a time where the services are fast, and SIM activation happens within seconds, waiting for something such as portability for seven days sounds unreasonable, and that was the issue that Trai tried to solve with the new rules, and to a certain extent, it already has.
As per the new rules proposed by Trai, the timeline for MNP will now be reduced to 2 days from the previous time of 7 days. This is a reduction of 5 days in the waiting time for the subscribers porting. This means that the network operator would be changed within two days and on the third day onwards, the subscribers would be able to enjoy the new network. Similarly, the inter circle MNP, which is porting between two circles, would happen in 5 days.
MNP Fee Reduction for Telcos
It is also worth noting at the start of the year, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has also cut down on the MNP fees for the telecom operators, courtesy of which the telecom operators would be able to save on costs which they had to pay to the MNP service providers. The cost has come down by a whopping 70% for the telcos, and they would now have to pay around Rs 5 per porting request.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9zTwcsym4c&t=83s
MNP Rule Implementation Delayed
On the other hand, for the subscribers, Trai had initially said that it would bring the new MNP rules to effect on November 11, after a transition period between November 4 and November 10, in which no porting code would be generated. However, topping off that previous announcement, Trai has issued a new notification in which it has said that the subscribers will be able to generate porting codes currently and that the new date of MNP implementation has been delayed indefinitely.
