Mobile Portability: Mobile Number Portability now in India

This is no less than a heart throbbing news for all those guys who were suffering the bad network problem but not changing the operator due to fear of getting their number changed. However, from today i.e. from 20th January 2011 mobile phone users can switch to other telecom operators without changing their previous mobile number.

Though the service was initially launched in the state of Haryana last November, it has been made operative all over the nation from today onwards. Nearly 600 million users can utilize this facility across the country.

Well, here is the way of switching from one network to other while retaining the number. All customers are required to send an SMS with their mobile number to 1900 (SMS PORT 1900) to get their unique porting code. After this, the process is essentially the same as getting a new connection.

Well, from this it could be made out that the customers won’t be carrying the same operator despite of poor or costly service in fear of changing number. Moreover, the users switching numbers are likely to be post paid users.

Telecom providers have sought to maximize the benefits and limit the damages of MNP by launching often aggressive marketing campaigns. Vodafone’s Indian unit launched a “Everybody’s welcome” campaign and Idea launched the now-popular “Switch to Idea” campaign.

It will lead to increased competition between them and the already ‘mobile’ telecom customer will have more options at his disposal – with a lock in period (90 days) of course. But after riding that, the customer is free again. And it is too early for the numbers to tell the complete story.

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Comments/Queries

( 2 Comments so far )

• manish sahu
  
  Jan 20, 2011 at 01:21:pm

  how to change to another operator in mumbai? kindly let me know how to use the mobile number portability scheme in mumbai.
• Rajes T
  
  Jan 21, 2011 at 03:15:pm

  How much does it charge to switch over