Mobile Number portability by October 31:TRAI

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairman JS Sarma on Thursday announced that citizens of the country would have access to mobile number portability (MNP) from October 31.

"There will be no further delay in the implementation of MNP," said Mr Sarma.

MNP allows a mobile user to change his operator while retaining the number. The Department of Telecom (DoT) said operators must ensure that all inter-operator tests for porting the numbers from one service provider to another are complete by September 1, 2010, failing which they will be barred from launching any new services from September 1.

The announcement comes as mobile service providers get ready to launch high-speed 3G services next month.

State-owned telcos BSNL and MTNL said they are ready with the infrastructure to implement the MNP service. The MNP was to be implemented by December 31, 2009 in all metros and in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The deadline was extended to March 31, 2010 and then to June 30, 2010.