New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Tuesday issued new set of rules on Mobile Number Portability (MNP) which will be applicable from December 16 (Monday). The revised changes will make the porting procedure effortless and fast. Under this procedure, the new porting comes with conditions for generation of Unique Porting Code (UPC) that will take 3-5 working days to come to effect instead of 15 days as per the earlier procedure.
There is no change in the porting timelines for the corporate mobile connections, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said.
“TRAI has revised the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) process…In the revised MNP process, the Unique Porting Code (UPC) will be generated only when the subscriber is eligible to port-out his mobile number,” TRAI said.
From December 16, 2019, the revised MNP process will be in place and mobile subscribers can generate the Unique Porting Code and avail the mobile number porting process, it added.
Under the new rules, to port a mobile number, a subscriber needs to send an SMS with the word ‘PORT’ followed by space and the ten-digit mobile number that is to be ported to 1900. A Unique Porting Code (UPC) will be generated that will be received as a message to the user.
The subscriber then need to visit the nearest customer service centre to port the number and fill the Customer Acquisition Form (CAF) and Porting Form mentioning the valid UPC.
Following submission of the necessary payment and KYC documents, the customer service will issue a new SIM. Then, a message of confirmation of number porting will be received by the user during which the porting request can be cancelled or withdrawn.
Earlier, laying down the rules for the new process, TRAI said a positive validation of various conditions will determine generation of the Unique Porting Code. For instance in case of post-paid mobile connection, the subscriber has to ensure clearance of ‘outstanding dues’ towards the existing telecom service provider for the issued bills as per normal billing cycle. Other conditions include activation in the present operator’s network of not less than 90 days; no pending contractual obligations to be fulfilled by the subscriber as per the exit clause provided in the subscriber agreement.
UPC will be valid for four days for all Licensed Service Areas (LSAs) except the circles of Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and North East where it will remain valid for 30 days.
“As the existing MNP system shall migrate to new MNP process with effect from 16 December 2019, facility of MNP will not be available during the period from 10 December 2019 to 15 December 2019 and Unique Porting
Code will also not be generated during the migration period. However, the porting requests already submitted will continue to be processed,” TRAI said.