Mobile Number Portability

Mobile Number Portability

I remember a lot of my friends who were unable to move to other operator as they might lose out the contacts. Friends, relatives and important clients may not be able to contact you until you inform them about your new number.

Many of them kept the number and added one more connection of another operator but again one had to maintain and pay for both the numbers.

Then came MNP – a relief for many disgruntled customer who were longing to move to other operator but were bound not to. With this the user can move between operators keeping their number as it is. That means keeping my Number I can PORT-OUT (Leaving the operator) from Airtel and simultaneously PORT-IN (Selecting the new Operator) to Vodafone. One can choose across a various service telecom providers in India like Reliance, TATA, Airtel, Aircel, Vodafone, BSNL and Idea (GSM to GSM & CDMA to CDMA).

I have tried to share the process of port-out from Operator A and port-in to Operator B with the best possible and simplest way. The process remains same both for prepaid and postpaid but that prepaid process seems to be easier.

One must make up his mind if at all he want to Port-Out as once port-out successful and you had joined another network you will not be able to port-out until you complete 3 months cooling period. Also it can be done across all network but within the same circle. Kolkata to Kolkata and not Kolkata to Bihar or Odisha.

Please find below the Steps involved

1.    Clear all the Dues (Billed and Unbilled for Postpaid, positive balance for prepaid).

2.    Send a message as PORT<space>MSISDN to 1900

1. E.g.: PORT 1234567890 and send this message to 1900.

3.    You will receive a UPC Code in message.

1. Note down the UPC Code.
2. The UPC is valid for 15 days
3. 30 days in case of J&K, NE & Assam Service Areas.

4.    Visit the nearest Desired Operators Customer service center or the retailer

1. Fill in the Form 
2. Pay Rs. 19 as the charges

5.    In the form you have to mention UPC Code (From Step 1).

1. Submit your Identity
2. Address Proof
3. Photograph.

6.    For Corporate/Company connections.

1. NOC is required for MNP, duly signed and stamped on the company letter head by the authorized signatory of the company along with Documents in Step 5.
2. PAN Card.
3. ID proof

7.    The customer center will give an empty sim, after your payment and document submission. Within 1 day you will receive an acceptance message to confirm the porting.

8.    Change over takes place on the 7th working day (15th working day in case of Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and North East service areas). You will get an SMS from the operator with the date and time for porting. The service disruption time shall not be more than 2 hrs during night time of the date/time of porting.

9.    Insert the new sim in your phone, now you are in the new network with old number.

Once you ported to new operator, the minimum time to stay with the new operator is 3 months. So in this 3 months’ time you cannot port your number once again. Also MNP currently is possible only within your telecom circle.

MNP process for both prepaid as well as postpaid connections is same but porting a prepaid sim card is the fastest and easier than postpaid however with the right set of verified documents the process smooth-ens.

Operators always try to retain their valued customer by offering them some discounts or concession. MNP may not be the best solution but certainly gives the customer an opportunity to get the best for themselves.

Please share your valuable inputs to continuously improve and update.