MANU/TRAI/0131/2018

Department/Board : Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

Press Release No. : 119/2018

Date : 13.12.2018

TRAI releases Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability (Seventh Amendment) Regulations, 2018

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has today issued Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability (Seventh Amendment) Regulations, 2018.

2. 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.

3. Keeping in view to devise mechanism for reducing the rejections on the grounds of "Unique Porting Code (UPC) Mismatch" and "Unique Porting Code (UPC) expired", the Authority initiated draft Telecommunications Mobile Number Portability (seventh amendment), Regulations 2017, on 16th August, 2017 for seeking comments of the stakeholders. The comments received from the stakeholders were examined and analysed. Through the comments, it was observed that in addition to the amendments as proposed in the draft MNP regulations (seventh amendment) as mentioned above, various other issues were also raised by stakeholders and new mechanisms were suggested.

4. Pursuant to the suggestions/ comments submitted by the stakeholders during consultation on draft 7th amendment, the Authority on 6th April, 2018, initiated the Consultation Paper (CP) on 'Review of the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) process' for the comments of the stakeholders. The Consultation Paper envisaged to review all the existing issues with a vision to make the MNP process more efficient and convenient for the telecom subscribers. Total thirteen (13) comments and five (05) counter-comments were received from the stakeholders. An Open House Discussion was convened on 11th June, 2018.

5. Based on the comments /counter-comments received during consultation process, the Draft Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability Regulations 2009 (Seventh Amendment) was issued for the comments of stakeholders on 25th September, 2018. The draft amendment was made available for consultation on TRAI's website. Written comments on the draft amendment were invited from the stakeholders by 24th October, 2018. Total nine (09) comments were received from the stakeholders.

6. Through this regulation (amendment), a major shift in the mechanism for generatin........