Number portability definitely by Oct-end, vow authorities

Ruling out any further delay in the implementation of mobile number portability, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said today that MNP will be implemented nationwide from 31 October. "There will be no further delay in the implementation of MNP," TRAI chairman J S Sarma said in New Delhi.

Sarma was repeating a diktat of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), which said on Wednesday that operators must ensure that all inter-operator tests for porting numbers from one service provider to another are completed before 1 September. The DoT made it clear that operators that fail to implement MNP will be barred from launching any new commercial services from 1 September.

MNP is a service that allows a mobile user to change his or her service provider without having to change the mobile number. "It has been decided that permission to launch commercial services in any area with effect from 1 September 2010 shall be given to only those licensee(s) who are MNP compliant," said a DoT note.

This implies that operators, including market leaders Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular, as well as new operators such as MTS, Uninor and Tata DoCoMo, will be unable to launch new services in case they fail to implement MNP by the deadline.

Operators have missed the deadline to implement the service four times since last year. Last month, the government extended the deadline to 31 October after service providers failed to implement it by the earlier deadline of 30 June.

State-owned telecom companies Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, who have got preferential allotment of 3G spectrum, have said they are ready with the infrastructure to implement the MNP service. But private telecom companies have so far said they are not ready with the infrastructure to provide the service.

Asked about the rolling out of 3G services, Sarma said, "I see no reason to believe that there would be any delay."