Mobile No. Portability only by year end only

The Government may now allow mobile number portability (MNP) by the end of the year 2009, Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura said at a summit organised by the industry body ASSOCHAM. The MNP was slated to come into effect in metros and large states on September 20, and the rest of the country by March 2010. The process for rolling out MNP in India has already started with telecom regulator TRAI inviting industry suggestions on MNP charges. These charges would decide the amount a customer would have to pay to a service provider while switching over to another operator. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has also awarded licences to two companies to implement the rollout of MNP. Once implemented, MNP would allow subscribers to retain their existing mobile number while changing the service provider. Commenting on the auction of third generation (3G) telecom services, Behura said that the issue of the reserve price for 3G spectrum auction would be decided when the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) meets on July 31. The DoT and the Finance Ministry had earlier reached a consensus on the reserve price, but the matter was later referred to a ministerial panel headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.