Jammu, Jan 16: Millions of mobile subscribers across J&K, like their counterparts elsewhere, may now have a choice to switch over to telecom service provider of their choice, without losing their number.
 The Department of Telecommunication is rolling out Mobile Number Portability (MNP) scheme throughout India on January 20.
 Official sources told Greater Kashmir the telecom companies in J&K have made the required arrangements for starting MNP in the state. “The Department of Telecommunication, DoT, is likely to include J&K in the list of the states where the MNP will be rolled out from January 20,” they said.
 “We have made all necessary arrangements to roll out the MNP in J&K. We have been waiting the formal announcement from the DoT,” a senior BSNL official said.
 To recall, the Telecom Ministry had launched the MNP from Haryana on November 25, 2010 while deciding to roll out the services in rest of India from January 20.
 The MNP was introduced after postponing it three times because telecom operators were not ready with the necessary infrastructure.
 Number portability allows mobile subscribers to retain their phone numbers even if they change service providers. India had over 670 million mobile subscribers at the end of August, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
 Talking to the Greater Kashmir, DDG, DoT J&K, Aahuja said, “We are still awaiting for formal directions from the Telecom ministry. However, we are hopeful it would be rolled out as per the scheduled date but the things would be clear only in next couple of days.”
 Sources said six telecom operators including BSNL, Airtel, Aircel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone and Tata Indicom in J&K have been preparing for offering the service in the state.
 Under guidelines proposed last year by TRAI, mobile users would be allowed to use the same mobile number even if providers avail different mobile technologies like CDMA (code division multiple access) or GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications).
 The maximum time for porting would be seven working days except in J&K, Assam and North East service areas, where it would be 15 working days.
 The customers will have to pay a maximum of Rs 19 to the new operator for porting his number.
 However the minimum stay period for a customer to retain the new operator will be three months.
 They will have to send an SMS from their phone to 1900. Based on this, they will get a unique porting code from the existing provider. The customer has to fill an application mentioning the code to the selected new service provider for transferring the number.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 16 Jan 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 16 Jan 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:00:00 IST