DoT’s Double Diwali Bonus: Mobile Number Portability Beyond Circles And No Roaming Charges

From now on, mobile users in India will not have to change their subscriber when they change their number, even if they relocate from one telecom circle to another.

The Telecom Commission, which hapens to be the highest decision-making authority in the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), finally accepted the recommendations of the TRAI on mobile number portability (MNP). It will now be implemented by March 31, 2015. This decision, however, will be first put before Ravi Shankar Prasad, communications and information technology minister, for the final nod.

In the earlier decision made about portability, users were allowed to change their operators but only within the circle.

In its recommendation, TRAI had suggested a period of six months for the telecom operators to make necessary changes in their network after the proposed date of proposal was cleared.

Full MNP is expected to help operators across India in gaining subscribers at the cost of the operators, the customers of which relocate to other states in which the operators do not have a presence.

Not only this, users will also not be required to pay huge roaming charges when they travel to other states. According to sources, this will benefit a minimum of 12% of all the Indian mobile users.

Both the changes will be implemented from 31st March 2015.

Image: thinkstock