Change your Operator but keep your Number

One of my friends has changed his number 9 times in the last 3 years, and many of the people I know have at least changed it 5 times. But you cannot blame them; once you change the network – you have to change your number. Number portability was a distant dream. It was working fine for the telecom service provider but it was a nightmare for the consumers who have to keep on informing everyone about the number change.


But it would change pretty soon, as mobile number portability (MNP) will be implemented nationwide from October 31.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has informed that there would be no further delay in the implementation. In fact, the Department of Telecom (DoT) said the operators must ensure that all inter-operator tests for porting the numbers from one service provider to another are completed before September 1, 2010. DoT further pointed out the telecom operators will be barred from launching any new commercial services from September 1 in case they fail to implement MNP as per the scheduled deadline


As per a DoT note, "It has been decided that permission to launch commercial service in any area with effect from September 1, 2010 shall be given to only those licensee(s) who are MNP compliant,"