The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has now issued directions to Reliance Communications Limited and Reliance Telecom Limited, all access service providers and Mobile Number Portability Service Providers regarding the extension of the validity period of Unique Porting Codes, issued to the subscribers of RCom pursuant to closure of 2G/GSM, CDMA services and discontinuation of voice services in all the licensed services areas until March 20, 2018. Trai also stated that UPC would be issued until the new deadline.
For the unaware, Reliance Communications Ltd on October 30, 2017, informed Trai regarding the closure of 2G GSM services in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, UP (East), UP (West), Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala with effect from December 1, 2017. Later on November 1, 2017, RCom said confirmed to Trai about the discontinuation of its CDMA services and upgrading the network from CDMA to LTE in 800 MHz band starting December 1, 2017, in Delhi, Rajasthan, UP (West), Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, West Bengal, Gujarat and Kolkata.
Considering the requests, Trai issued a direction on November 3, 2017, to generate Unique Porting Codes (UPCs) for all its subscribers in the licensed service areas mentioned above. At the same time, Trai confirmed that the generated UPC would be valid until December 31, 2017, which was further extended until January 31, 2018.
And RCom on November 29, 2017, informed Trai regarding the discontinuation of voice services to all its existing subscribers in the licensed service areas of Bihar, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai, Orissa, Punjab,, Rajasthan and West Bengal in the licensed service areas of Assam, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh, North East, Orissa, and West Bengal with effect from December 29, 2017.
Post the expiry of the last date of porting of mobile numbers in the licensed services as mentioned above, Trai received a lot of complaints from subscribers of RCom regarding non-receipt of the UPC or rejections of their requests for porting their mobile numbers, which led Trai to extend the date further.
