Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had issued the Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability (MNP) Regulations 2009 (8 of 2009) dated 23rd September 2009 laying down the basic business process framework for implementation of MNP in the country. In a continuous endeavour to make MNP process more subscriber friendly, based on feedback from the stakeholders and its own analysis, TRAI has issued various Directions and amendments to the MNP regulations. The present consultation on amendment of MNP regulations is also a part of the same process.

Rejection of porting requests creates dissatisfaction and frustration among subscribers. It is observed that, grounds of rejection dependent on Unique Porting Code (UPC), namely ‘UPC Mismatch’ and ‘invalid/expired UPC’, jointly contribute around 40% of the total rejection of porting requests. Through this amendment, TRAI proposes a mechanism for sharing the UPC generated by Donor Operator with MNP Clearing House, which in turn can be approached by the Recipient Operator, to confirm the correctness and validity of the UPC submitted by the subscriber. This will result in reduction of rejection of porting requests and will increase subscriber satisfaction. The draft amendment also propose to make provision to transmit the relevant information viz. date of the bill, amount outstanding, last date of payment, date of the notice and period of notice given to the subscriber by Donor Operator through the MNP Clearing House.

The Draft Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability (Seventh Amendment) Regulations, 2017 for consultation is available on here.

Suggestions on the issues raised in the consultation are invited from the stakeholders by 28th September, 2017.