Gabu

TRAI wants service providers to bear the cost of supporting mobile number portability, a move which operators say is heavily loaded against them and will benefit MNP operators only.

The regulator has sought stakeholders' opinion through a consultation paper by tomorrow on MNP charges, which will decide what the customer has to pay.

"It therefore follows that the recipient operator shall not charge any additional fee for porting-in the mobile number of the subscriber other than the 'porting charge'," according to the consultation paper.

This porting charge shall not be more than the "per port (of) transaction charge" to be paid by the operator to the MNP service provider, which will be determined by TRAI after the consultation process, the paper says.

The regulator has said if an operator does not give its response by July 17, it will be presumed that it (the operator) agrees with the suggestions.

Some GSM operators have said this will benefit MNP operators.

Syniverse and Telcordia-backed MNP Interconnect are the two managers of mobile number portability in the country.

goldygold

What about your opinion about the MNP charge? What amount of charge would be reasonable?
What about the lock-in period while switching over from one network to other....

Gabu

Well ultimately the gaining provider will absorb the charges however it shouldn't be forced on subscribers.
I think initially charge would be high however when volume of subscribers changing will grow .... the charge will settle to around 50-100Rs.

Lock-in preiod of 3month is not as bad as I initially thought because TRAI already has rule that you can't change given tariff for a new subscriber for atleast 6months ...... so 3month period won't pose a big problem.