BSNL may miss the 31 March MNP deadline

In a letter to the DoT, the state-owned BSNL has said that it may miss even the 31 March deadline for implementation of the mobile number portability (MNP) regime, if it did not get security clearance for import of the needed equipment at the earliest.

The telco has also sought DoT's intervention for expediting the security clearance process to import MNP infrastructure so that it could meet the second deadline set by the government.

In its letter to Dot, the public sector telco said, "We would like to bring to your kind notice that BSNL has not been able to place purchase orders for MNP gateway for want of security clearance." With MNP, cellphone users can their operators without having to change their cell number.

According to BSNL it has submitted details to DoT on its MNP infrastructure and is still awaiting security clearance for placing purchase orders. The government had set 31 December 2009 as the deadline for the introduction of the MNP regime in the four metros. However, the deadline could not be met as many operators informed DoT they needed more time to upgrade their networks.

Subsequently, DoT set 31 March as the new date for the roll out of the facility across the country at one go.

Telcos have to first ensure that they are able to meet certain requirements including technical upgradation of network, installation verification tests, setting up links with MNP operators and conducting inter-operator tests before introducing MNP services.