Longer Wait For Faster Mobile Portability: TRAI Extends Deadline For Two-Day MPN Implementation To 30 September

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has extended the deadline for telecos to reduce the time taken while porting a sim from one operator to another to two days. Earlier, the deadline was set to 13 June, but now the regulator has extended the deadline for Mobile Number Portability (MNP) to 30 September, Telecom Talk reports.

Back in December last year, TRAI had called out the telecoms to speed up the portability drill. TRAI urged the operators to reduce MNP time to two days for intra-circle portability. However, the regulator retained the porting time of four days for porting SIM between two different circles.

Telecom operators had requested the TRAI for more time to reduce the MNP process as it would require huge changes in their IT elements and network. To ensure the operators follow the rules, the national telecom regulator has introduced two types of fines for breaching guidelines.

Telecom company will have to pay a maximum of Rs 5,000 for every breach of the rule requiring to share user details with the MNP service provider within the next 24 hours of porting request. The fine would increase to Rs 10,000 per violation if a teleco wrongfully rejects a porting request.