New Delhi, January 20: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday launched the much awaited mobile portability across India at a function in Vigyan Bhawan.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Manmohan Singh said that the freedom to choose the service provider will enable the mobile phone users to avail the maximum possible benefits.
He said that the MNP is a very important milestone in the evolution of telecommunications in the country.
Pointing out that the prices of the telecom services are among the lowest globally, he said that on the average about 15 million new subscribers are being added each month.
This has led to the country achieving a teledensity of about 65 per cent, the Prime Minister said, with the subscriber base reaching around 750 million from a mere 33 million in March 2004.
The Mobile Number portability (MNP) will allow customers to change their mobile operators in their Service Areas while retaining the mobile numbers originally assigned to them, thereby avoiding the inconvenience of switching to new numbers.
The MNP will enable a subscriber to exercise his or her choice and get products and services in accordance with his or her preferences.
The subscriber will be charged Rs 19 to switch over to a new service provider. However the subscriber will have to subscribe at least for three months before switching over.
It is up to the service provider to charge or not to charge the incoming customer and so a customer may actually end up paying even less for this service.
It is expected that Mobile Number Portability, besides enabling a subscriber to change operators without losing his or her original number, will also trigger greater competition. This should further spur the growth of the Indian telecom sector.
The advent of 3G and Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) Services will provide a further boost to the provision of affordable voice and broadband services in our country
INN