Trai Chairman Explains Why Mobile Number Portability Rules Were Changed

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is the one responsible for bringing reeling changes in the telecom industry and ensuring that the interests of the consumers remain a top priority in the sector. As such, the regulator has recently brought some changes into the industry which have to do with the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) regulations. These changes significantly change the MNP process and reduce the time that was required to switch from one operator to another operator. The new MNP rules have definitely been appreciated by the consumers, and for the most part, the biggest advantage for the consumers is that they have to wait very less to change their operator. However, in a new talk with ETTelecom, Trai chairman RS Sharma has explained why the MNP rules were changed and what are some of the other implications of the new rules that have been brought in its wake. The Trai chairman also expressed his views on the unbundled licensing regime too.

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Mobile Number Portability New Rules

When asked, why the MNP regime was changed in the Indian telecom industry, Trai chairman, RS Sharma remarked that when the subscriber had to port from one operator to another operator, they had to go their current operator from which they want to port out of. When the subscribers went to their operator, they wanted to retain their customer and hence rejected their MNP request on the basis of non-payment of bills. As such, the power of releasing the customer was in the hands of the telecom operators, which led to a conflict of interest in some cases. The Unique Porting Code (UPC) which was required by the port-in telecom operator (operator to which the subscribers want to port) was also generated by the current telecom operator of the subscribers.