The much awaited scheme for the mobile number portability has sought a clearance from the central Government as it will soon be launched in Bangalore and Chennai. This was confirmed by the Communications and Information Minister Mr. A. Raja.

The mobile number portability would allow users to migrate from one telecom service provider to the other without change in phone numbers. It was proposed to be launched earlier than May but got procrastinated due to the pending security issues for the devices which were being imported from other countries.

It has always been a tussle for the 3G spectrum issue; the minister pitched in saying that, the department was waiting for the advice of the finance and law ministries to clear the deck. "I hope everything will be resolved this week. The Centre is committed to introducing this technology as early as possible," he added.

According to reports, mobile density has significantly rose to 40 per cent. In year 2009, India saw an addition of 19 million telecom subscribers. BSNL claims to be the pioneer in launching 3G services across 300 cities and intends to launch the services in 760 cities across all the four zones by December this year.

In Karnataka, BSNL aims to add 32 more cities during the first half of 2010-11. Mr. R K Agarwal, Director (Consumer Mobility), BSNL Board, said the company has invested a huge sum of money i. e. Rs. 2,700 crore in the smooth access for 3G services and introduce the mobile advertisement services, location-based services and various multi-media services over 3G platform.