TRAI Slashes Rate Of Mobile Number Portability By 79%

TRAI Slashes Rate Of Mobile Number Portability By 79%

TRAI, THE telecom regulator, this week cut rates of mobile number portability by around 79% to an utmost of Rs 4, mentioning higher volumes and lower cost for such payments. The approved upper limit for rates of mobile number portability was so far Rs 19. TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) in an interview issued the lowering in per port payment charge to Rs 4 from Rs 19 for every victorious porting.

“The upper limit of charges levyable from user stands involuntarily less to Rs 4. On the other hand, recipient providers are free to tax a lesser sum from the user for Mobile Number Portability,” it claimed. Put basically, the MNP or Mobile Number Portability permits telecom users to keep hold of their current mobile number, even when they move to different provider.

TRAI had started a consultation procedure to evaluate MNP rates in mid-December, and kept an eye on it with an open house conversation on the problem on January 16, 2018. The new rates will come into effect from the date of announcement in the authorized gazette, TRAI claimed. Telecom providers claimed that the decisions will lower MNP price load on them.

“Providers have been asking TRAI to lower down this rate since the MNP transaction have increased manifold ever since beginning of MNP. In various cases, the providers were bearing this price in support of the user coming to them for port-in. Thus, it will be helpful for both operators and customers as the price of porting will be reduced greatly,” claimed General Rajan S Mathews, Director of industry body COAI, to the media in an interview. The evaluation of the charges was started as the watchdog felt that the upper limit of Rs 19 is quite big when weighted to volumes and cost of transaction included.