Telecom regulator authority of India (Trai) today recommended the implementation of nation-wide mobile number portability by June 2009 in a phased manner and has requested DoT to select an operator for providing and operating MNP solutions. The move is likely to push operators to provide quality services to retain their subscribers. Trai has forwarded the Draft Request For Proposal (RFP) to the Department of Telecom for the selection of an operator, which would be licenced for providing and operating mobile number portability solutions in the country. "The Mobile Number Portability Clearing House Administrator (MCHA) should be licenced through a competitive bidding process," Trai said in a statement. MNP is expected to lead to shifting of subscribers from one operator to other in large scale. The move is opposed by the existing GSM operators who had demanded that the number portability should be implemented across the services mobile and fixed line both. The Telecom regulator has also recommended a cap of less than 10 per cent on the equity holding of telecom service providers in the proposed third party operator, similarly the operator should not be allowed to hold 10 per cent or more stake in the any of the telecom companies. Earlier, Trai had constituted a panel consisting of representatives from DoT, TEC, all service providers and associations for deliberating on the methodology for selecting a neutral third party or parties who could act as MCHA. Based on the interim report of the panel the regulator has now come out with draft guidelines for the appointment of a central agency. Trai has also suggested that planning of database should to be done on all-India basis with scalability option so that in phase I it is implemented in metros. DoT would then come out with the road map for MNP implementation in rest of the country soon. The cost for setting up and running of the MCHA would be borne by the MNP licensee who shall recover it in the form of port transaction fee from service providers. "In case of prepaid mobile subscriber, porting the mobile number having balance amount, no credit transfer will be allowed to the new account. Subscriber has to either consume the balance amount or forgo it," the release said. The MCHA would be owned and operated by one legal entity. However, such entity would be licensed by the DoT. The selection of the company would be based on technical and financial evaluation of the bid. Financial bid(s), shall be opened only for those companies who qualify in the evaluation of the technical bids. The selection of the company would be based on lowest quoted rates of per port transaction fees inclusive of all charges and expenditures, Trai said.
