Mobile Number Portability – Ensure Your Application Does Not Get Rejected

With the introduction of Mobile Number Portability (MNP), India has joined the increasing number of countries offering this feature. However, in terms of the sheer size of the implementation, India ranks the highest. We had earlier written on the benefits and drawbacks of introducing number portability in India. As per TRAI data, there were 17.11 lakh submissions for change of carrier, out of which a large number of requests were rejected (TRAI did not reveal the exact figures). Let us see what are the reasons that a change of service provider request can be rejected, and how you can avoid it.

Incorrect Unique Porting Code Submitted by Subscriber in the Porting Form

In order to migrate your current mobile number to a new mobile service provider, you need to send an SMS to 1900 in the format PORT ten-digit-mobile-number. First two characters of the Unique Porting Code are Alphabets (denoting the service provider code and service area code) and remaining 6 digits are numerical characters except numeric ‘0’ (zero).The Unique Porting Code allocated to a subscriber shall be valid for a period of fifteen days from the date of request. This Unique Porting Code should be filled in the Porting form without any error. Before submitting the porting request, subscribers should match the actual Unique Porting Code received by SMS, with the Unique Porting Code they have entered in the porting form so that there is no chance of any error.

Non-Completion of 90 days

The subscriber is eligible for porting only if he has completed 90 days from the activation of the existing mobile connection or last porting date of mobile number whichever is applicable. The subscribers must ensure the same before applying for porting.

Existing Contractual Obligations

The Donor operator can reject a porting request if 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.

Non-Payment of Outstanding Bill

Donor Operator can reject a porting request if there are outstanding payments due from the subscriber by way of pending bill or bills, as the case may be before the date of application for porting. Therefore subscribers must ensure that their last bill is fully paid before applying for porting. They should also attach a copy of the paid bill receipt while applying for porting. In case of prepaid customers, the balance on the number is automatically carried forward, however, it is advisable to have minimal or zero balance at the time of the application.

So, go ahead, enjoy your freedom of choice, but ensure that you read the eligibility conditions carefully before submitting a porting request, and check for the above conditions to ensure a seamless transition to a new carrier.