Mobile Number Portability Background Note 1.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had issued a consultation paper on Mobile Number Portability (MNP) on 22nd July 2005 and based on the inputs received and its analysis, the Authority submitted its recommendation to DoT on 8th March 2006 under Section 11(1)(a)(iv)(v) and (vii) of the TRAI Act 1997 (as amended). In these recommendations, the Authority has recommended implementation of MNP in the whole country in a phased manner, starting from Metros and A category service areas followed by B and C category service areas. 2. On 10th December 2007, the DoT decided to implement MNP starting from four Metro cities in the first phase. DoT had also accepted the suggestion of the Authority that a Steering Committee be formed under the aegis of TRAI, to deliberate upon various issues involved in the implementation of MNP in the country. Accordingly, the TRAI constituted a Steering Committee consisting of representatives from TEC, Service Providers and their Associations. 3. Based on the report of the Steering Committee and decision of the Authority, a draft Request for Proposal (RFP) was prepared and submitted to DoT for initiating the process for selection of MNP operator. Subsequently the DOT issued guidelines for MNP service license on 1st August 2008. The DoT guidelines envisaged geographical division of the country into two Number Portability Zones (zone 1 & zone 2), each consisting of 11 licensed service areas as given below in Table 1.

Zone 1 Name of Category of Licensed Licensed Service Areas Service Areas Delhi Metro Mumbai Metro Maharashtra Gujarat Haryana Punjab Rajasthan Uttar Pradesh (E) Uttar Pradesh(W) Himachal Pradesh Jammu & Kashmir A A B B B B B C C Table 1

Name of Licensed Service Areas Kolkata Tamil Nadu including Chennai Andhra Pradesh Karnataka Kerala Madhya Pradesh West Bengal Assam Bihar North East Orissa

Zone 2 Category of Licensed Service Areas Metro A A A B B B C C C C

As per these guidelines, the MNP will be initially implemented in all metros and category A service areas within six months of award of MNP license. Subsequently the operation of MNP will be expanded to the rest of the service areas in a time bound manner. 4. DOT then initiated the process of selecting the MNP operators for the two identified zones. For this purpose, DoT issued the Tender Document on 25th Nov. 2008. One operator in each zone was selected. M/s Syniverse Technologies(I) Pvt. Ltd has been granted licence for operating in Zone 1 (Northern and Western India) and M/s MNP Interconnection Telecom Solutions(I) Pvt. Ltd has been granted licence for MNP Service Zone 2(Eastern and Southern India). These licenses have come into operation w.e.f 20th March, 2009.

5. The function of MNP operator (MNPO) is that of a facilitator, administrator and a referee in the implementation of MNP in its zone and subsequent routing of call to the correct network. MNP operator is the key participant to actually facilitate and manage the porting activities in a MNP zone. The job of a MNP operator includes inter alia the following: a) Clearing House activities: Processing the porting requests in a predefined manner in Maintaining Centralized Data base of ported numbers and

coordination with the access providers keep updating them in a timely fashion. Also provide the facilities to Access Providers and ILDOs for updating the respective Local Number Portability database This database is used for implementing the All Call Query method by the concerned service providers. (It may be recalled that it was decided to implement the All Call Query method in which the originating network first checks the location of the dialed number in the central database and then routes the call directly to the recipient network.) Maintaining porting history of ported numbers and facilitating reversal of the unused ported numbers to Number Range Holder b) Query response activity Providing the facility of dipping/query services for operators

who do not own their own database and wants to take the services of MNP operator in the implementation of All Call Query method. Also provide this facility to those operators who maintain their own ported number database but require this facility under emergency conditions like failure of their database

6. TRAI is formulating business process for implementation of MNP in the country. A questionnaire was sent to both the MNPOs to seek the details of the procedure/business rules for implementing mobile number portability. Written comments received from these service providers were analysed. In addition a series of meetings were held with the access providers, NLDOs, ILDOs, MNPOs and Industry associations, in this regard. Based on the inputs received from these service providers & associations and its own analysis this draft regulation has been prepared. 7. TRAI is also in the process of issuing a consultation paper on Per port transaction charges and dipping charges. 8. The draft regulations are available on TRAIs website

www.trai.gov.in. It is requested that stakeholders may send their comments on the draft regulations along with their comments on on the following issues: 1. The eligibility criteria for Mobile Number Portability given in Chapter II 2. During the discussions, the service providers were of the view that if a post paid subscriber opts to port his number, the facility of ISD and International roaming may be discontinued. The other view is that for a subscriber with post-paid connections, ISD facility and International roaming is required even during the period of porting and in any case an undertaking is being given by the subscriber to pay the bills raised during the period of porting. As far as pre-paid subscriber is concerned, the availability of ISD facility and 4

International roaming facility is not an issue. Therefore, in the regulations, the proposal to disconnect ISD and International roaming facility has not been covered. Please comment 3. Please give your comments / suggestions on the porting procedure given in Regulation 6 4. The grounds for rejection of porting request by donor operator, given in the regulation 7 5. On the rights and obligations of service providers given in Chapter III 6. Comments / suggestions on any part of the draft regulations? The stakeholders are requested to send their comments on the draft regulations by 14th July 2009 to Sudhir Gupta, Advisor (MN) Fax No.: +91-11-23212014 trai.mn@gmail.com. or email at advmn@trai.gov.in or