S.No. PARTICULARS PAGE NO.

1 Executive Summary
OBJECTIVE OF STUDY
LITERATURE REVIEW
Feature of Mobile Number Portability System
Procedure for Mobile Number Portability System
TRAI’s Rules & Regulations For Mobile Number Portability

Portability schemes
 All Call Query (ACQ)
 Query on Release (QoR)
 Call Dropback
 Onward Routing (OR)
Criteria for Applying For MNP, 3 Month Rule
Research Proposal

Introduction of MNP
OBSERVATIONS AND FINDINGS
LIMITATIONS OF STUDY
RECOMMENDATIONS/SUGGESTION
Conclusion

MOBILE NUMBER PORTABLITY SYSTEM

Purpose –to investigate the effect of mobile number portability (MNP) on mobile
subscribers in INDIA by focusing on subscribers' perception and behavior related to MNP.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Mobile number portability means you can keep your existing mobile telephone number when
you change your service provider.

Mobile Number Portability service provides you the facility to change your service operator
without losing your current number. In 2010 MNP was arrived to few cities of the India, like
"Haryana" but to security reasons government had not given the authority to launch it all over the
India. After one year of consideration finally Indian Government has given the green signal to
"mobile number portability" service.

Mobile number portability is simply keeping your mobile phone number when moving from
your existing service provider to a new provider. It means you will use the services and features
offered by your new provider and not take your existing service and its features with you

The study was a comparative study, done to know the pros and cons of Mobile Number
Portability System (MNPS) from both customer'’ as well as services provider’s perspective.

Data were obtained through Survey method at Vadodara. Two questionnaires were prepared; one
for cellular service providers and second for the customers. Total 135 Samples were taken for the
study, among them 110 were customer and 25 were service providers. After the Study, it was
found that, Customers are eagerly waiting for such a service, where customer an change service
provider without changing mobile number. Introduction of MNPS will lead to number of
advantages to the customers like low tariff, flexibility to change, good network and ore VAS.
Major drawback of MNPS for customer will be relatively less as compared to that of service
provider. Service providers do not seem to be happy size, if MNPS comes in to action. They will
face problems like losing customer base, cut-throat competition, and financial loss and also they
will have to upgrade their network.

Arrival of Mobile Number Portability may affect the business of various service providers. The
service operators who is offering poor quality service to their customers may get affected by
their rivals, who is providing much better service. so, the arrival of this service has changed the
way of competition and now every service providers has challenge to provide better and
uninterrupted service to satisfy their customers otherwise they got switched. Now, here apply
forest rule (I know you all are aware of the forest rule or Jungle rule: stronger beat the weaker
and weaker have to fight for their survival.), if you want to survive in the current market beat the
competitor otherwise he may beat you and then you will not get another chance. So, we
prepared to face the challenge.

OBJECTIVE OF STUDY

 To Study and Analyze Consumer Perception towards mobile number portability services

and their intention to avail service provider.
 To Study and analyze factors Influencing consumer perception to change their service
provider.
 To determine the rate of switching of customers to different service providers
 To analyse the most preffered service provider.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Switching costs. Without number portability a subscriber who wants to change his network
operator has to give up his mobile number. This is a classical example of switching cost in
telecommunications. According to Padila et al. Switching costs can be defined as real or
perceived costs that are incurred when changing supplier but which are not incurred by
remaining with the current supplier. Switching costs is a widely spread phenomenon which
fundamentally changes the way in which firms behave and markets operate. The existence of
such costs leads to economies of scale in repeat purchasing, because a customer who has
previously bought from one firm incurs extra cost in purchasing an otherwise identical product
from a new firm, even if that product is sold at the same unit price. As a consequence, in markets
with consumer switching costs demand is less elastic and consumers have limited incentives to
migrate to cheaper offers which dampens competition.
In telecommunications lack of mobile number portability is not the only instance of consumer
switching costs. Other forms of switching costs include simlocking handsets, fines for breaking
contract and loyalty discounts.

The impact of switching costs on market competition has been analyzed by many researchers.
Surely one of the most important contributions have been made by Klemperer. He discuses the
impact of switching costs on prices, market shares, profits and entry deterrence. The fundamental
way in which switching costs change firms behavior is that each supplier with an installed base
of customers will have interest in exploiting his customers, because they are locked-in by
previous purchase. This motivation, especially in case of no price discrimination, will cause a
weak interest in competing for rivals’ or new customers.

Another consequence of switching costs and lock-in mechanism is that for each supplier market
share is a fundamental goal of business strategy. Firms will invest in future market shares, since
installed customer base is valuable for them. In the dynamic market perspective, when firms first
compete for new customers who later on face switching costs of changing supplier, prices are
lower in the beginning and higher in later periods of competition as compared to identical market
with no switching costs. This is known as bargain then rip-off pricing. Although in this pricing
pattern low prices for new customers are followed by high prices for locked-in customers, but
average market prices and profits are still higher than in the absence of switching costs.

Mobile Number Portability. The effect of MNP introduction should be consistent with
lowering switching costs. The main expectation is that average market prices should fall down. A
price decrease will affect not only old mobile subscribers but also new customers and this should
positively affect adoption rate. This is however only true if new consumers have rational
expectations. Naive customers do not see the relation between lower prices today and higher
prices tomorrow, so that reduction of switching costs would actually discourage them from
buying today because of less attractive promotional offers (weaker ’bargain’ part of pricing
strategy).
There are several types of benefits from MNP introduction. In a report made by Ovum for
Oftel prior to MNP. In case of business subscribers keeping their number allows to avoid cost of
informing clients; cost of updating advertisements, business cards, cars repainting; cost of losing
and substituting part of business contacts. On average 10 percent of clients are lost and cost of
substituting one client was estimated for small and medium enterprisers. Although the results of
cost benefit analysis for UK market were estimated positive, MNP has not to be always welfare
enhancing, as Buehler. They identify different types of beneficiaries of MNP introduction and
point out on the negative consequences of this functionality on fixed-to-mobile termination
charges resulting from network identification problem. The last part of literature includes few
empirical studies of the impact of MNP on price competition. In this respect there are at least two
notable papers. The first one concerns the market for 800 toll-free info lines and the second
concerns mobile market. There are also many empirical studies concerning the impact of
lowering switching costs on market price indices in other industries, such as airline, banking, and
gasoline.

COUNTRY DATE OF PORTABLITY

AFRICA
Kenya July 1, 2005
AMERICA
Canada March 14, 2007
United States October 31, 2007
Mexico July 5 of 2008
Dominican Republic September 30, 2009
Brazil March, 2009
Ecuador 12. October 2009
ASIA
Hong Kong March 1, 1999
India 20th January 2011
Japan October 24, 2006
Malaysia mid 2008
Saudi Arabia 8 July 2006
Oman 26 August 2006
Pakistan March 23, 2007
Singapore 13 June 2008
South Korea January 1, 2004
Sri Lanka August 2007
EUROPE
Austria Oct 2004
Belgium Oct 2002
Cyprus July 12, 2004
Denmark January 1, 2001
Estonia January 1, 2005
Finland July 25, 2003
France June 30, 2003
Germany November 1, 2002
Greece March 1, 2004
Hungary May 1, 2004
Ireland Jul 2003
Italy April 30, 2002
Luxembourg June 2004
Portugal June 30, 2001
Slovakia May 2004
Spain October 1, 2000
Sweden September 1, 2001
Turkey Nov 2008

OCEANIA
Australia Mid1999
New Zealand 1 April 2007

FEATURE OF MOBILE NUMBER PORTABILITY SYSTEM

 Direct access to Customer Care agent.

 Minimum time require for porting number from one operator to another operator.
 Charges for porting to another operator is less.
 Pay per second on all calls. Even on roaming. No conditions.
 Guaranteed fair billing on postpay.
 No charges for Customer Care Calls.
 No charges for Voice Mail Services.
 No congestion on the network.

PROCEDURE FOR MOBILE NUMBER PORTABILITY SYSTEM

 First send an SMS to 1900 from your current number-PORT <Your Mobile Number> e.g.
PORT 123456789
  You will be assigned a unique porting code which you have to send to the operator you
want to switch to via SMS. This number will be given through ads or on the operator’s
website.  However, this code is valid only for a few days. So, you have to act quickly.
 The new operator will communicate with your existing operator to ensure you don’t have
any dues pending. After confirmation, your existing operator will give the approval for
number porting.
 You will have to fit a form and submit relevant documents. If you are a post-paid
customer, you will have to submit a copy of your latest bill also.
 After completing these formalities, you will get an SMS for the porting time and date. As
per TRAI regulations, it is compulsory to complete the entire process within four days.

TRAI’S RULES & REGULATIONS FOR MOBILE NUMBER PORTABILITY

Price Users will have to pay a porting charge to the operator to which you are switching. The
price has not been fixed yet and could be anywhere between Rs. 20 to Rs. 200. You will not need
to pay a penny to the operator you are leaving.

- No Dues. The subscriber making the porting request should clear all the bills issued prior to the
date of porting request. He shall provide a written undertaking that he has already paid all billed
dues as on the date of the request for porting and that he shall pay dues to the operator till its
eventual porting. In the event of non-payment of any such dues to, the ported mobile number
shall be liable to be disconnected.

- Prepaid Users: Upon porting of the mobile number, the balance amount of talk time at the
time of porting shall lapse.
- Legal Criteria. MNP will not be permitted if there is a pending request for change of
ownership of the mobile number; if it is sub-judice and if the porting has been prohibited by a
court. In case a subscriber has not complied with exit clauses in his contractual obligations, the
request can be rejected.

- No Refundable Charges. A subscriber may withdraw his porting request within 24 hours of its
submission. However, the porting charges are not refundable.

- Routing: Once the donor operator has disconnected the mobile number and the recipient
operator has activated it, the MNP provider allocates the corresponding Location Routing
Number to the ported number in the Number Portability Database and broadcasts the updated
Location Routing Number along with the ported mobile number to all Access Providers and
International Long Distance Operators who shall update their respective Local Number
Portability Database.

- Per Port Transaction Charges: Recipient operators have to pay the MNP provider per port
transaction charges on a monthly basis.

- Interconnect Agreements: All existing interconnect agreements and arrangements between

Access Providers, National Long Distance Operators and
International Long Distance Operators shall stand amended so as to conform to the provisions of
these regulations as regards routing of calls to and from ported mobile numbers.

- How Long Will It Take The porting process will take a maximum time period of 4 days in all
licensed service areas except in the case of J&K, Assam and North East where the maximum
time allowed is 12 days. Weekends are excluded from this time frame.

- No Service Period: The window period for disconnection and activation by operators has been
kept at one hour each, so the maximum downtime for  the subscriber will be two hours.
 PORTABILITY SCHEMES

 All Call Query (ACQ)

 Query on Release (QoR)

 Call Dropback

 Onward Routing (OR)

All Call Query (ACQ):-

The operator that originates the call always checks a centralized database and
obtains the route to the call.

Query on Release (QoR):-

The operator that originates the call first checks with the operator to which the
number initially belonged, the donor operator. The donor operator verifies the call and informs
that it no longer possesses the number. The operator that originates the call then checks the
centralized database, as is done with ACQ.

Call Dropback :-
Also known as Return to Pivot (RoP). The operator that originates the call first
checks with the donor operator. The donor operator checks its own database and provides a new
route. The operator that originates the call then uses this route to forward the call. No central
database is consulted.

Onward Routing (OR) :-

The operator that originates the call checks with the donor operator. The donor
operator checks its own database and obtains a new route. The operator to which the number was
designated routes itself the call to the new operator. This model is called indirect routing.

Criteria for Applying For MNP, 3 Month Rule

MNP facility shall be available only within a given licensed service area. So if you are
moving to another city and want to retain your mobile number, MNP is not the answer. Mobile
users may only apply for MNP if they want to switch networks in the same area where their
existing mobile number is registered.

- The 3 Month Rule. A subscriber is eligible to make a porting request only after 90 days of the
date of activation of his mobile connection. If a number is already ported once, the number can
again be ported only after 90 days from the date of the previous porting. TRAI has explained that
this minimum period is required so as to enable the service provider to recover the customer
acquisition cost.

Disconnected: After porting of a mobile number, if it remains disconnected for 90 days, it will
be reversed back to the number range holder (original operator).

Whom To Approach? SMS the operator to which you want to switch and ask for your unique
porting code, which is an alphanumeric code allocated upon request. Operators have been 
directed to set up a mechanism (a shortcode) to receive the SMSs and respond with the unique
porting code. Subscribers will also have to give in writing their request to the operator to which
they are switching and fill up a customer acquisition form, which the operator will verify.

Operator’s Task: After verifying the porting code, identity and address of the user, the recipient
operator (which the subscriber is joining) has to forward details to the mobile number portability
service provider within 24 hours.The operator has to pay a ‘per port transaction’ charge for each
request forwarded by it to the MNP provider. They would have to examine the request carefully
as there is no provision for refund of porting charges from the MNP provider.

Research Proposal

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

1. To know acceptability of Mobile Number Portability System to customer.

2. To find out pros and cons of Mobile Number Portability System for mobile users.
3. To find out pros and cons of Mobile Numbers Portability System for Cellular service
providers

RESEARCH DESIGN: Descriptive Research design.

Hear we will use descriptive research design because we want to

identify and describe the characteristics and the behaviors of the consumers, for that we have to
do market research. So we use descriptive research design.

SOURCES OF DATA COLLECTION:

Primary Data: Survey

Secondary Data: Journals, Websites and Research Papers.

Research Instrument: Questionnaire.

INTRODUCTION OF

MOBILE NUMBER PORTABILITY SYSTEM

Definitions. ―In these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires,-

(a) “Access Provider” means the holder of a Cellular Mobile Telephone Service licence or
Unified Access Service licence and includes a service provider providing fixed wireline or fixed
wireless service in addition to Cellular Mobile Telephone Service;
(b) "Act" means the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 (24 of 1997);
(c) "Authority" means the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India established under sub-section
(1) of section 3 of the Act;
(d) “dipping" means use of query response system of the Mobile Number Portability service
provider for obtaining Location Routing Number for routing a message to the called number;
(e) "Donor Operator" “means a Cellular Mobile Telecom Service provider or Unified Access
Service provider, to whose network the mobile number belongs at the time the subscriber makes
a request for porting;
(f) "Local Number Portability Database” means the database of all
ported mobile numbers maintained by an Access Provider and an International Long Distance
Operator;
(g) "Location Routing Number” means the code assigned to every Access Provider for the
purpose of implementing Mobile Number Portability;
(h) “message” shall have the meaning assigned to it in clause (3) of section 3 of the Indian
Telegraph Act, 1885 (13 of 1885);

(i) “Mobile Number Portability” means the facility which allows a subscriber to retain his
mobile telephone number when he moves from one Access Provider to another irrespective of
the mobile technology or from one cellular mobile technology to another of the same Access
Provider;
(j) “Mobile Number Portability Service provider” means an entity who has been granted a
licence under Section 4 of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 (13 of 1885) for providing Mobile
Number Portability Service;
(k) “No Service Period” means the period of time between the disconnection of the mobile
telephone service to the porting subscriber by the Donor Operator and the activation of mobile
telephone service, on porting, by the Recipient Operator;
(l) "Number Portability Database” means the database maintained by each Mobile Number
Portability Service provider in electronic form, holding the details of all ported mobile numbers
in its zone, along with the complete history of all transactions relating to the porting of such
numbers;
(m) "Number Range Holder" means an Access Provider who was originally allotted, by the
licensor, that number range to which the ported number belongs;
(n) “Per Port Transaction charge” means the charge payable by the Recipient Operator to the
Mobile Number Portability Service provider for processing the porting request in respect of a
mobile number;
(o) “porting” means the process of moving, by a subscriber, of his mobile number or numbers,
as the case may be, from one Access Provider to another Access Provider or from one mobile
technology to another of the same or any other Access Provider;
(p) “porting charge” means such charge as may be levied by a Recipient Operator from a
subscriber for porting his mobile number;
(q) “Recipient Operator" means an Access Provider who will be providing mobile
telecommunication service to the subscriber after porting and includes his authorized agent;
(r) "regulations" means the Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability Regulations, 2009;
(s) “subscriber” means any person or legal entity that avails the mobile telecommunication
service from a licensed telecom Access Provider;
(t) “unique porting code” means an alphanumeric code allocated, upon request, by an Access
Provider to its subscriber for the purpose of facilitation of porting of his mobile number;

Mobile Number Portability service provides you the facility to change your service operator
without losing your current number. In 2010 MNP was arrived to few cities of the India, like
"Haryana" but to security reasons government had not given the authority to launch it all over the
India. After one year of consideration finally Indian Government has given the green signal to
"mobile number portability" service.

It is most sensational news for the mobile users. This service was widely used in foreign
countries but now it is also available in India. User will be very happy to know about this great
news. The best part of this service is that a person who is fed up of the poor and interrupted
service of the operators, they can take a sigh of relief. Most of people use a mobile service
through existing operator like Airtel, Reliance, Tata, Idea, Vodafone. But some of them were
very upset due to poor quality service of mobile operator. When anyone call, most of the time it
shows unreachable. When at home the network graph is totally blank. Then people had moved to
other operator and they are very happy, but people lost their number. And this the reason why
people doesn't change their service providers. If they change their service providers their contact
will be lost. But Mobile Number Portability System service has removed all this tensions.

Arrival of Mobile Number Portability may affect the business of various service providers. The
service operators who is offering poor quality service to their customers may get affected by
their rivals, who is providing much better service. so, the arrival of this service has changed the
way of competition and now every service providers has challenge to provide better and
uninterrupted service to satisfy their customers otherwise they got switched. Now, here apply
forest rule (I know you all are aware of the forest rule or Jungle rule: stronger beat the weaker
and weaker have to fight for their survival.), if you want to survive in the current market beat the
competitor otherwise he may beat you and then you will not get another chance. So, we
prepared to face the challenge.

The usage of mobile phones is on the increase today in our country. Several service providers
are rendering mobile phone service across the country. Each service provider is allotted distinct
numbers for allotment to the subscribers. Migration from one service provider to another
service provider with the existing mobile number is not possible at present. Promotion of
competition and efficiency requires the facilitation of easy movement of subscribers from one
service provider to another or across mobile technologies. Mobile Number Portability allows
the subscribers to retain their existing telephone number when they move from access provider
to another irrespective of the mobile technology or from one cellular mobile technology to
another of the same access provider, in a licensed area.  The facility of retention of existing
mobile telephone number despite moving to a new telecom service provider helps the
subscriber maintain contact with the friends/clientele.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ('TRAI' for short) made 'Telecommunication
Mobile Number Portability Regulations, 2009' to regulate the mobile number portability and
notified the same on 23rd September 2009.
Regulation defines the terms 'Mobile Number Portability'('MNP' for short) as the facility which
allows a subscriber to retain his mobile telephone number when he moves from one Access
Provider to another irrespective of the mobile technology, or from one cellular mobile
technology to another of the same Access provider.
INTRODUCTION OF COMPANIES

AIRTEL

Bharti Airtel formerly known as Bharti Tele-Ventures LTD (BTVL) is the largest cellular
service provider in India, with more than 110 million subscribers as of 2009. With this, Bharti is
now the world's third-largest, single-country mobile operator and sixth-largest integrated
telecom operator. It also offers fixed line services and broadband services. It offers its
TELECOM services under the Airtel brand and is headed by Sunil Bharti Mittal. The company
also provides telephone services and Internet access over DSL in 14 circles. It also acts as a
carrier for national and international long distance communication services. In 2009 Airtel has
also launched its services in Sri Lanka

RELIANCE

Reliance Communications, formerly known as Reliance Infocomm, along with Reliance

Telecom and Flag Telecom, is part of Reliance Communications Ventures. It is the second
largest mobile operator in India, based on number of subscribers. According to National Stock
Exchange data, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani controls 66.77 per cent of the company, which accounts
for more than 1.36 billion shares. It is the flagship company of the Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai
Ambani Group, comprising of power (Reliance Energy), financial services (Reliance Capital)
and telecom initiatives of the Reliance ADAG.

BSNL

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (known as BSNL, India Communications Corporation Limited)
is a state-owned telecommunication company in India.

BSNL is the fourth largest cellular service provider, with over 53.96 million customers as of
March 31, 2009 and the largest land line telephone provider in India.

BSNL is India's oldest and largest Communication Service Provider. BSNL launched 3G
services in 11 cities of country in 2nd march 2009.MTNL which operates in Mumbai and Delhi
first launched 3G services in these cities

VODAFONE
Vodafone Essar, formally known as Hutchison Essar is a cellular operator in India that covers 23
telecom circles in India based in Mumbai. Vodafone Essar is owned by Vodafone 67% and Essar
Group 33%. It is the Third largest mobile phone operator in terms of revenue behind Bharti
Airtel, and third largest in terms of customers. As of June 31, 2009, Vodafone India has 18.8%
customer market share and 20.7% revenue market share.

IDEA

Idea Cellular is owned by Aditya Birla Group. Idea Cellular is a wireless telephony company
operating in all the 22 telecom circles in India based in Mumbai. It is the 5rd largest GSM
company in India behind, Airtel, Reliance, Vodafone, and BSNL. Idea Cellular won the GSM
Association Award for "Best Billing and Customer Care Solution" for 2 consecutive years.

TATA DOCOMO

It is a Tata Teleservices Limited's (TTSL) cellular service provider on the GSM platform-arising
out of the Tata Group's strategic joint venture with Japanese telecom giant NTT Docomo in
November 2008. Tata Teleservices has received a pan-India license to operate GSM telecom
services, under the brand "TATA DOCOMO" and has also been allotted spectrum in 18 telecom
Circles. TTSL has already rolled out its services in various circles. It has become very popular
with its one second pulse especially in semi-urban and rural areas

AIRCEL

Aircel is a mobile phone service provider in India. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM
cellular phone coverage throughout India. Aircel is a joint venture between Maxis
Communications of Malaysia and Apollo Hospital Enterprise Ltd of India. Maxis has a 74%
stake in Aircel and the remaining 26% is with Apollo Hospitals. It is India’s fifth largest GSM
mobile service provider with a subscriber base of over 27.7 million, as of October 31, 2009.
Aircel has won many awards for its services. Aircel was honored at the World Brand Congress
2009 with three awards, Brand Leadership in Telecom, and Marketing Campaign & Marketing
Professional of the Year

VIRGIN

Virgin Mobile India Limited is a cellular telephone service provider company which is a joint
venture between Tata Teleservices and Richard Branson's Virgin Group. Currently, the company
uses Tata's CDMA network to offer its services under the brand name Virgin Mobile, and it has
also started GSM sevices in some states

TATA INDICOM

Tata Teleservices Limited(TTSL) is a part of the Tata Group of companies based in Navi
Mumbai, an Indian conglomerate. It operates under the brand name Tata Indicom in various
telecom circles of India. Tata Teleservices spearheads the Group’s presence in the telecom
sector. Incorporated in 1996, Tata Teleservices was the first to launch CDMA mobile services in
India with the Andhra Pradesh circle.

FRAMEWORK:
The regulations seek to provide a framework governing all relevant aspects of MNP by-

 laying down clear eligibility conditions for porting of mobile telephone numbers;
 defining rights and obligations of various stake holders, i.e., the Donor Operator,
the Recipient Operator, the MNP service provider;
 laying down the procedure to be followed by each player in the chain in
processing number porting request;
 specifying clear time limits for completion of various steps by each player in the
chain i.e., the Donor Operator, Recipient Operator and the MNP service provider;
 envisaging least disruption of service to the consumer.

SALIENT FEATURES:
The salient features of the MNP under these regulations are as follows:

 MNP facility shall be available only within a given licensed area;

 A subscriber holding a mobile number is eligible to make a porting request only after 90
days of the date of activation of his mobile connection.   If a number is already ported
once, the number can again be ported only after 90 days from the date of previous
porting;
 The subscriber who wishes to port his mobile number should approach the Recipient
operator. The subscriber may be required to pay porting charges, if any, to the Recipient
Operator;
 The subscriber making the porting request is required to have cleared all the bills issued
prior to the date of porting request.  He shall give an undertaking that he has already paid
all billed dues to the Donor Operator as on the date of the request for porting and that he
shall pay dues to the Donor Operator pertaining to the mobile number till its eventual
porting and that he understandings and agrees that in event of non payment of any such
dues to the Donor Operator, the ported mobile number shall be liable to be disconnected
by the Recipient Operator;
 A subscriber may withdraw his porting request within 24 hours of its submission to the
Recipient Operator. However the porting charges shall not be refundable;
 The regulation envisage a maximum time period of four days for the completion of
porting process;
 Access Providers are required to implement All Call Query methods;
 The Originating operator shall be responsible to route the call to correct terminating
network.

ELIGIBILITY FOR MAKING A REQUEST:

Every subscriber shall be eligible to make a request for porting(the process of moving, by a
subscriber, of his mobile number or numbers from one Access Provider to another Access
Provider or from one mobile technology to another of the same or any other Access Provider)
his mobile number if he satisfies the following:

 A period of ninety days has expired from the date of activation of his mobile connection
not ported earlier or from the date of activation of his mobile number after its last porting;
  There is no outstanding due to the Donor Operator by way of pending bill or bills issued
as per the normal billing cycle but before the date of application for porting;
 There is no pending request for change of ownership of the mobile number;
 The mobile number sought to be ported is not sub-judice;
 Porting of the concerned mobile number has not been prohibited by the Court of Law;
 The request form shall be accompanied by all documents applicable to a new subscriber;
a copy of the last bill, in the case of a postpaid subscriber.

CONTENTS OF REQUEST:
The porting request form as specified by the Recipient operator shall, inter alia, incorporate the
following:

 The eligibility criteria;

 The grounds for rejection;
 In the case of a post paid subscriber, an undertaking by the subscriber that he has already
paid all dues as per the last bill to the Donor Operator and that he shall be bound to pay
all dues to the Donor Operator pertaining to the mobile number sought to be ported till its
eventual porting and that he understands and agrees that in the event of non payment of
any such dues to the Donor Operator, the ported mobile number shall, without prejudice
to any other remedies available to the Donor Operator under law for recovery of such
dues, be liable to be disconnected by the Recipient Operator;
 In the case of a pre-paid subscriber, an undertaking by the subscriber to the effect that he
understands and agrees that, upon porting of the mobile number, the balance amount of
talk time, if any, at the time of porting shall lapse;
 Such details of the subscriber as mandated by the licensor or by the Authority from time
to time;

WITHDRAWAL OF PORTING REQUEST:

A subscriber may, within twenty four hours of making a request for porting, withdraw such
request by informing the Recipient operator in writing. He shall not be entitled to any refund
of the porting charge paid by him to the Recipient operator. Where the Recipient Operator has
not forwarded the porting request to the Mobile Number Portability Service Provider till
receipt of the information regarding withdrawal of the request, it shall not take any further
action on such porting request.

In case the Recipient Operator has already forwarded the porting request to the Mobile
Number Portability Service provider, before receipt of the information regarding withdrawal
of the request, it shall forthwith inform the Mobile Number Portability Service Provider about
the withdrawal of the porting request and the Mobile Number Portability Service provider
shall forthwith inform the Donor Operator about the withdrawal of the porting request. In this
case the Recipient Operator shall be liable to pay the applicable per port transaction charge to
the Mobile Number Portability Service provider.

GROUNDS FOR REJECTION OF REQUEST:

The request may be rejected on any of the following grounds:

 There are outstanding payments due from the subscriber by way of pending bill or bills,
as the case may be, issued as per the normal billing cycle but before the date of
application for porting;
 The porting request has been made before the expiry of a period of ninety days from the
date of activation of a new connection;
 A request for change of ownership of the mobile number is under process;
 The mobile number sought to be ported is sub-judice;
 Porting of the mobile number has been prohibited by a Court of Law;
 Subscriber has applied for inter-service area porting;
 The unique porting code mentioned in the porting request does not match with the unique
porting code allocated by the Donor Operator for the mobile number sought to be ported;
 There are subsisting contractual obligations in respect of which an exit clause has been
provided in the subscriber agreement but the subscriber has not complied with such exit
clause. Where the Donor Operator rejects a porting request on the ground of subsisting
contractual obligations, he shall indicate the full details of such contractual obligations.

PROCESSING OF NUMBER PORTING REQUEST:

Every Access Provider shall facilitate in its entire network, Mobile Number Portability to all
subscribers, both pre paid and post paid and shall, upon request, provide the same on a non
discriminatory basis. Every Access Provider shall, within sixty days from the date of these
regulations coming into force, set up, in its mobile network, a mechanism for the purpose of-

 Receiving Short Message Service (SMS) messages from its subscribers requesting for a
unique porting code (an alpha numeric code allocated, upon request, by an Access
provider to its subscriber for the purpose of facilities of porting of his mobile number);
 Allocating a unique porting code for each such request and communicating it to the
subscriber forthwith through Short Message Service (SMS) message through an
automated process; and
 Retaining such unique porting number on its records for the purpose of verification of the
porting request of such subscriber to be received eventually by it from the Mobile
Number Portability Service provider.

ACTION BY RECIPIENT OPERATOR:

Recipient operator is an Access Provider who will be providing mobile telecommunication
service to the subscriber after porting and includes his authorized agent.  The role of Recipient
Operator in the process is as follows:

          Every subscriber desirous of porting his mobile number shall make a request in
writing to the concerned Recipient Operator in such format as may be specified by
such Recipient Operator;
          On  receipt of request the Recipient Operator shall verify if the customer
acquisition form is accompanied by all documents specified;
         He shall record  in the form that he has seen the subscriber and verified his
documents with their respective originals and found them to be in order;
          He shall thereupon ask the subscriber to send a message through SMS to a
specified short code of the Donor Operator from the subscriber's mobile number which
is sought to be ported;
          On receipt of message from the subscriber, the Donor Operator shall forthwith
send back a reply message through an automated system generated SMS containing a
unique porting code;
          The subscriber shall incorporate the unique porting code in the porting request
form;
           The Recipient Operator shall within a period of twenty four hours forward the
mobile number, the corresponding unique porting code and the date on which porting
request is made by the subscriber, to the concerned Mobile Number Portability Service
Provider;  Sundays and public holidays shall be excluded in calculating twenty four
hours;
          The Recipient Operator shall pay Per Port Transaction charge in respect of each
porting request forwarded by it to the Mobile Number Portability Service Provider;

ACTION BY MOBILE NUMBER PORTABILITY SERVICE PROVIDER:

Mobile Number Portability Service Provider is an entity who has been granted a licence under
Section 4 of the Indian Telegraph Act for providing Mobile Number Portability Service. Two
MNP operators for two zones in the country were identified and license was issued to them.
The role of MNP service provider is as follows:

 On receipt of request the service provider shall verify from its Number Portability
Database (the database maintained by each MNP Service Provider in electronic form,
holding the details of all ported mobile numbers in its zone, along with the complete
history of all transactions relating to the porting of such numbers) whether the mobile
number has been ported earlier and, if so, whether a period of ninety days has elapsed
from the date of its last porting;
 If ninety days has not elapsed he shall not take any action on the request and inform the
Recipient Operator accordingly and the Recipient operator shall communicate the same
to the concerned subscriber;
 He shall verify whether any porting request in respect of the same mobile number is
already pending and, if so, it shall reject the current request for porting and communicate
such rejection to the Recipient Operator who forwarded such request, who shall,
thereupon communicate the same to the concerned subscriber;
 If no pending request is there he shall forthwith forward the details of such request to the
Donor Operator for seeking his clearance for such porting;

ACTION BY DONOR OPERATOR:

Donor Operator is a Cellular Mobile Telecom Service Provider or Unified Access Service
Provider, to whose network the mobile number belongs at the time the subscriber makes a
request for porting. The role of Donor Operator on receipt of the details of porting request
from MNP service provider, he shall within twenty four hours, verify such details and
communicate to the MNP service provider-

          Where it finds that porting request is covered under any of the grounds for
rejection, the details of specific ground on which it has any objection to the porting of
the number from its network; or
          Where it finds that porting request is not covered under any of the grounds for
rejection its clearance for the porting of the mobile number.

In calculating twenty four hours intervening Sundays and public holidays declared under the
Negotiable Instrument Act, 1881 shall be excluded.

PORTING OF MOBILE NUMBER:

On receipt of communication from the Donor Operator, the MNP service provider shall-

 communicate the grounds for rejection for porting, if any, to the Recipient operator ;
 where the Donor Operator has indicated his clearance to the porting request or has failed
to communicate either its clearance or its objection for porting of the mobile number
within the time specified, forthwith fix the date and time of porting of such mobile
number and communicate it, along with details of anticipated number, service period,
simultaneously to the Donor Operator and the Recipient Operator;
 He shall fix the date and time of porting in such manner that the porting shall be within
six hours from the time of receipt of the clearance from the Donor Operator or the expiry
of the time limit specified; In respect of Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and North East the
date and time for porting shall be within ten days from the date of clearance from the
Donor Operator or the expiry of the time limit specified;
 Where the MNP service provider has communicated the grounds for rejection as
indicated by the Donor Operator to the Recipient Operator, the Recipient operator shall
communicate the same, in writing or through SMS to the concerned subscriber;
 Where the MNP service provider has communicated the date and time of porting of such
mobile number and the anticipated No Service Period (the period of time between the
disconnection of the mobile telephone service to the porting subscriber by the Donor
Operator and the activation of mobile telephone service, on porting by the Recipient
 Operator) to the Donor Operator and to the Recipient Operator, the Recipient Operator
shall communicate the same to the subscriber telephonically or through SMS or through
an automated voice message;
 At the date and time of porting fixed by the MNP Service Provider, he shall communicate
to the Donor Operator its instructions for disconnection of the mobile number and the
Donor Operator shall immediately and in any case within one hour of receipt of such
instruction comply with such instructions and report compliance of such instructions to
the MNP Service Provider;
 On receipt of the compliance or the expiry of one hour whichever is earlier the MNP
Service Provider shall communicate to the Recipient Operator its instructions for
activation of the mobile number;
 On receipt of the instructions the Recipient Operator shall, immediately and in any case
within one hour of receipt of such instructions comply with such instructions and report
compliance of such instructions to the MNP Service Provider;
 On receipt of compliance, the MNP Service Provider shall allocate the corresponding
Location Routing Number (the code assigned to every Access Provider for the purpose of
implementing Mobile Number Portability) to the ported number in the Number
Portability database and broadcast the updated Location Routing Number along with the
ported mobile number to all Access Providers and International Long Distance Operators
who shall update their respective Local Number Portability Database.

RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS OF SERVICE PROVIDERS:

Donor Operator:

 He shall continue to provide all subscribed telecommunication services to the subscriber

who has sought porting of his mobile number till the disconnection of the mobile number;
 After disconnection he shall refund to the subscriber, with such time frame and in such
manner as specified in the Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service
(Wire line) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service Regulations, 2009 all amounts due to
such subscriber on account of refundable payments or deposits made by such subscriber
to the Donor Operator;
 He shall maintain records of all mobile numbers ported out by it and all mobile numbers
for which porting requests have been rejected by it for a minimum period of twelve
months from the date of porting or the date of rejection of request;
 In case of non payment of any outstanding bill after the porting request he shall give a
notice of not less than seven days to the subscriber notifying him that in case of non
payment within the said notice period, the he shall request the Recipient Operator to
disconnect the ported number;
 If the subscriber fails to make payments as specified in the notice, he shall communicate
the details of such outstanding bills to the Recipient Operator through MNP Service
Provider with an advice to take action for disconnecting the ported number.

RECIPIENT OPERATOR:

 He shall pay to the MNP Service provider, the Per Port Transaction charge (the charge
payable by the Recipient Operator the MNP Service provider for processing the porting
request in respect of a mobile number) at the rate specified by TRAI within 15 days of
receipt of the bill or within such other time limit as may be mutually agreed upon;
 He shall maintain records in respect of all mobile numbers for which porting requests
have been rejected, for a minimum period of twelve months from the date of rejection of
such requests;
 On receipt of request from the Donor Operator to disconnect the porting number, he shall
issue a notice to the concerned subscriber, the period of which shall be not less than
seven days and not more than fifteen days about the request received from the Donor
Operator and  request him to produce evidence of having settled the dues with the Donor
Operator;
 If the subscriber produces evidence he shall not take any further action and shall inform
the Donor Operator through MNP Service provider;
 If the subscriber fails to produce evidence he shall disconnect the mobile number and
inform the MNP Service provider and request for reversal of such number to the Number
Range Holder after expiry of ninety days;
 If there is disconnection of the mobile number for any other reason he shall, after ninety
days of such disconnection, inform the MNP Service provider about such disconnection
with a request for reversal of such number to the Number Range Holder (an Access
 Provider who was originally allotted, by the licensor, that number range to which the
ported number belongs).

MNP SERVICE PROVIDER:

 He shall make all efforts to facilitate expeditious porting of mobile numbers through
effective coordination with the Donor Operator and the Recipient Operator;
 He shall use the Number Portability Database only for the purpose of porting and dipping
(use of query response system of the MNP Service provider for obtaining Location
Routing Number for routing a message to the called number) and not for any other
purpose;
 He shall generate specific sets of statistics regarding the number of porting requests
received, the number of porting carried out successfully and the number of failed porting
requests with reasons for such failures;
 On receipt of request from the Recipient Operator about disconnection of a ported mobile
number, he shall forthwith-
 Remove the number from its Number Portability Database;
 Update the Local Number Portability Databases of all Access Providers and
International Long Distance Operators; and
 Restore the mobile number to the Number Range Holder.
 He shall raise bills along with the relevant details in respect of Per Port Transaction
charges to the concerned Recipient Operators on a monthly basis and shall deliver such
bills before the tenth day of the following month or at such periodic intervals and within
such time limits as may be mutually agreed upon;
 If Recipient Operator fails to pay the bill he shall issue a notice, the period of which shall
not be less than fifteen days to make payment within such period;
 He shall in no case discontinue the provision of Mobile Number Portability Service to
such defaulting Recipient Operator.
 ACCESS PROVIDERS, NATIONAL LONG DISTANCE OPERATORS AND
INTERNATIONAL LONG DISTANCE OPERATORS:
 All existing interconnect agreements or arrangements between Access Providers,
National Long Distance Operators and International Long Distance Operators shall, upon
the coming into force of these regulations, stand amended so as to conform to the
provisions of the regulations as regards routing of calls to and from ported mobile
numbers;
 They shall within thirty days of coming into force of these regulations or before
commencement of Access Service or carriage service shall establish fail proof
connectivity from its Mobile Number Portability gateway  to the main Disaster recovery
sites of the Mobile Number Portability Service providers at its own cost;
 An Access Provider having licences in more than one licensed service area may establish
such fail proof connectivity to the main and Disaster recovery sites of the Mobile Number
Portability Service providers common for all its licensed service areas;
 An Access Provider, an International Long Distance Operator providing carriage service
to any Access Provider, may establish such fail proof connectivity to the main and
Disaster recovery sites of the MNP service providers common for all its licensed services
and share its Local Number Portability Database across its various licensed activities for
the purpose of implementing Mobile Number Portability Service;
 No Access Provider or International Long Distance Operator providing carriage service
to any Access Provider shall share its Local Number Portability Database with another
Access Provider or International Long Distance Operator;
 A service provider who is sharing its Local Number Portability Database across its
licensed activities shall ensure that such sharing of Local Number Portability Database
enables it to directly route messages to ported mobile numbers;
 Every Access Provider on whose network a message originates shall be responsible for
the correct routing of such message;
 The International Long Distance Operator carrying such messages shall be responsible
for correct routing of messages;
 Every Access Provider and International Long Distance Operator shall put in place
suitable mechanism for safeguarding the data provided by porting subscribers from
 unauthorized interception or unauthorized access and shall ensure that such data is used
solely for the purpose of porting of mobile numbers and shall not use such data for any
other purpose;
 These regulations shall not prevent such Access Providers from providing such data or
access to such data for monitoring purposes to the designated security agencies.

CHARGES FOR PORTING:

Per Porting Transaction charge to be payable by the subscriber to the Recipient Operator is
Rs.19/-. In this regard, the Authority while determining the Per Port Transaction charge
through the Telecommunications Per Port Transaction Charge and Dipping Charge
Regulations, 2009 ( 9 of 2009), has decided that no compensation shall be payable to the
service providers for up gradation of their networks to make it MNP compliant and also to the
Donor Operator for administrative costs incurred in processing the porting request as MNP do
not require the Donor Operator to carryout any significant work. Similarly, when a subscriber
makes a request to port his mobile number, in so far as Recipient Operator is concerned, it is
similar to acquiring a new subscriber and as such the Recipient Operator does not incur any
additional cost in the MNP process except for the Per Port Transaction charge which is
payable to the MNPSP for processing the porting request. Moreover, MNP gives the Recipient
Operator an opportunity to acquire more subscribers. Therefore, the Authority does not find
any justification for the Recipient Operator to charge any additional amount from the
subscriber over and above what it has to pay to the MNPSP in the form of Per Port
Transaction charge. Accordingly, the Per Port Transaction charge shall be the ceiling for the
Porting charge. It is however open to the Recipient Operator to collect, at his discretion, a
lesser amount from the subscriber making a porting request.

EFFECT:

Initially the TRAI fixed the date for implementation of mobile number portability as 31st
December 2009 for metro cities and 31st March, 2010 for other areas.   Since the service
providers requested the Authority to extend the same for better compliance the Authority
fixed the date as 31st March, 2010 for metro cities and 30th June 2010 for other areas. Despite
repeated extension of deadlines over the past one year, as of June only 14 per cent of the
mobile networks across the country were ready for the introduction of MNP and 36 per cent
 were in progress. The Department of Telecom said that permission to any operator for
launching services, post September 1, will be given only if their network is ready for
introducing MNP. The latest deadline for introducing the facility has been extended to
October 31.

OBSERVATIONS AND FINDINGS

Airtel was found the most dominating player in Vadodara market, followed by Idea and
Reliance.

 78 respondents out of 110 would like to change their service provider with same
mobile number, in spite of being satisfied with current service provider. So if Mobile
Number Portability comes into action, people may certainly accept the system.
 Out of 78 customers who were willing to change;

26 (33%) customer are willing to change in search of low tariffs of other service providers,

19 (25%) customer want to change because of flexibility to change service provider without
changing mobile number,

18 (23%) customer want to change because of more value added services provided by other
services provider and

8 (10%) and 7 (9%) were willing to change due to low switching cost and worst services of
current service provider.

 If Mobile Number Portability comes into action, customers will have benefits like:

Services at low tariffs.

 They will be flexible to change services provider without changing the number.

All services provider will try to give better services to customer in order to gain market share.
This rise in competition will result in intensive price war among the cellular services providers
and will benefit to customers.
  Cut throat competition will enable services providers to offer better Value Added
Services at cheaper prices.
 Major problem for customers will be to identify counterpart’s service provider

Network problems will also arise because there will be huge churning rate. Customer will
keep on switching networks which will result in Network related problems.

 According to Services provider, they will gain customers due to MNPS if they
provide quality services and customer satisfaction to Users.

On the other services provider also says that if they fail to provide better services, they will lose
their market share.

 Customer loyalty and retention ration will affect.

 Services provider will also have to update their networks in fight their rivals

LIMITATIONS OF STUDY

 As Number Portability System is yet to be launched, scope was study was limited to the
perception of samples.
 Mobile users are not yet fully aware about Number Portability so administering
questionnaire was a difficult.
 Providers were also not aware about Number portability, so their views were differing to
each provider.
 Lack of resources like time, mode of transportation to Survey team.
 The possibility of biased responses can’t be ruled out.
 Lack of interest of respondents.
 The respondents includes only those who are willing to switch their service providers.
 RECOMMENDATION/SUGGESTION

 TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) should take into consideration, the pros and cons
to services providers before launching Number portability System in India.

 TRAI should try and make out some benefits for the services provider so that they mutually
accept the System.

 To remain untouched by the effects of Number Portability system, service provider should put
their all efforts on making customers, brand loyal and concentrate more on customer retention
than on making new customers.

CONCLUSION

 In VADODARA market, Airtel is the top player. Idea is on Second followed by Reliance.
 Customers at VADODARA are willing to switch Service provider if they are given an
option to switch with same mobile number.
 Mobile Number Portability System will change the scenario of the telecom Industry.
Earlier the only way a service provider was able to hold their customer was by the mobile
number. But now if MNPS comes in to action customer will have freedom to switch with
same number so customer will rule the market.
 In this battle between customers and service providers, service provider will have to
surrender against customers
 Service provider provides best service so that existing user do not change the service
provider and also helps in creating new customer.
 Service provider also provides the details of the scheme that they provide so that
customer know very well to use that service.