The telecommunications regulatory authority of India (TRAI) on Tuesday revealed draft regulations for implementing Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in India. The facility of MNP will greatly benefit the mobile subscribers looking to change their telecom service providers. The MNP facility will allow mobile subscribers to change their telecom operators without changing their mobile numbers.

With the MNP facility, the mobile subscribers tired of their telecom service providers will be able to switch over to the telecom operators of their choice, along with retaining their old mobile numbers which they were using for long.

The TRAI has proposed that under MNP facility, a mobile subscriber will be allowed change telecom operator only after enjoying 90 days of service of first telecom operator, and after switching over to new operator, the subscriber will have to stick with the new operator for at least 90 days. The mobile subscriber will have to give written request to the first telecom operator for switching to telecom operator, which will have to conduct all mandatorily checks, such as identity verification, before enrolling the mobile subscriber for new service.

After receiving the porting request, the first telecom operator will communicate the mobile subscriber’s request to the MNP service provider within two working days. The entire process will be completed within five days.

However, mobile subscribers will not be allowed to change their telecom operators for free. The TRAI has proposed that the mobile subscribers that will change their telecom operators will have pay a fee, which will be fixed later after consulting with both the industry and consumer bodies. According to reports, the fee is expected to be in the range of Rs 250 – Rs 400.

The DoT (Department of Telecom) has already picked two firms – Syniverse Technologies and MNP Interconnect – as potential MNP service providers. The two companies will manage day-to-day work of implementation and will maintain the database of all numbers.

According to the TRAI, the MNP regulations will be finalized on the basis of feedback on the draft rules from the industry and consumer organizations.

The TRAI has said that the MNP facility will initially be commenced in metros and category A circles such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Gujarat on September 20. It will be made available in the rest of the country from March 20, 2010.