New Delhi:
Telecom Minister A Raja has said that government will kick off the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) from November 1.
"November 1 onwards MNP would be operational parially...we wanted to inaugurate in Haryana," Raja told reporters in New Delhi.
The service is expected to be rolled out in the rest of the country in phases.
MNP is a service that allows a mobile user to change his operator while retaining the number.
The Department of Telecom (DoT) had made it clear in August to all telecom operators that in case they fail to implement MNP as per the scheduled deadline, they will be barred from launching any new commercial services.
Its implementation has already been delayed thrice due to different reasons. The MNP was to be first implemented by December 31, 2009 in all the Metro cities as well as in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
But the deadline was changed to March 31, 2010 and thereafter to June 30, 2010 because of the lack of necessary infrastructure.
The June 30 deadline for the implementation of MNP was again deferred as the operators were not ready with the infrastructure to provide the service.
"November 1 onwards MNP would be operational parially...we wanted to inaugurate in Haryana," Raja told reporters in New Delhi.
The service is expected to be rolled out in the rest of the country in phases.
MNP is a service that allows a mobile user to change his operator while retaining the number.
The Department of Telecom (DoT) had made it clear in August to all telecom operators that in case they fail to implement MNP as per the scheduled deadline, they will be barred from launching any new commercial services.
Its implementation has already been delayed thrice due to different reasons. The MNP was to be first implemented by December 31, 2009 in all the Metro cities as well as in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
But the deadline was changed to March 31, 2010 and thereafter to June 30, 2010 because of the lack of necessary infrastructure.
The June 30 deadline for the implementation of MNP was again deferred as the operators were not ready with the infrastructure to provide the service.
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