India Regulator Fixes Up to INR19 As Fee To Switch Mobile
Operator
MUMBAI -(Dow Jones)- India's telecom regulator fixed INR19 as the maximum
charge that a subscriber has to pay to switch operators while retaining their
numbers under the mobile number portability, or MNP, system.
The Per port transaction charge, or the fee to be paid by the operator where
the user wants to shift to, to the MNP service provider for processing such a
request will also be INR19, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said in a
note late Friday.
To port - or switch - a number, the subscriber will have to request the new
operator, which has be processed in four days. The subscriber has to pay the
maximum INR19 to the new operator for the process.
India's federal government has decided to start implementing the MNP system
from Dec. 31 in metropolitan cities and some selected urban areas known as
Category A service areas.
Category A areas include Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata cities, and the states of
Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, including Chennai, and
Karnataka.
The MNP system will be extended to the rest of the country by March 20.
India, which had some 488.40 million mobile phone users at the end of October,
is divided into 22 telecom service areas on the bases of population and
districts.
MNP is likely to increase competition in an industry already reeling from an
intensifying tariff war in the world's fastest-growing telecommunications
market, say analysts.
Mobile phone service operators are cutting rates and launching per second
tariff plans to gain, or keep, a piece of the world's second-largest telecom
market with at least four new companies--including Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt. Ltd.
and Unitech Wireless Ltd.--gearing up to start services.
-By Romit Guha, Dow Jones Newswires; 91-9967586928; romit.guha@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
11-21-090433ET
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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