DoT dumps Trai advice on number portability

The government is understood to have rejected Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) recommendations on mobile number portability (MNP) saying this should not be mandated by the licensor or the regulator, as it would deny subscribers the freedom to change operator without changing the number.

Keeping in view some of the facts and recognising that the MNP is not a mandatory service and in the competitive environment sharing of cost upgradation for such facilities should not be mandated by the licensor -
Department of Telecom (DoT) or the regulator and should be left to the commercial judgement of the service providers, sources said.

The telecom regulator had given its recommendations in March this year asking DoT to implement the facility by April 2007 saying the government may mandate all cellular mobile service providers to offer MNP, initially to be introduced within the service area only.

Since Trai had submitted recommendations suo-moto, DoT is of the view that these are not covered under the particular clause of the Trai Act 1997 and therefore, in case of not accepting the recommendations, it is not necessary to refer them back to Trai before taking a final decision.

Trai had estimated that the cost of Rs 940 crore for upgradation of the networks and the implementation mechanism is to be shared by all the operators, DoT said Rs 940 crore is not a small cost at present so as to implement these features from April 1, 2007.