Gearing up to take advantage from MNP? This is what you need to know

A quick rehash to the MNP (Mobile Number Portability) scene. MNP is a service which will allow users to change their service providers without the need to change their numbers. Now, after a series of delays, it is set to arrive on September 20, 2009 in most of the cities and few states while others will have to wait till March 20, 2010.

Yesterday, TRAI revealed the draft norms that will bind the MNP service as well as users gaining from it. This is what you need to know if you’ll be going for it as soon as its available in September.

For Customers:

1. Customer needs to complete at least 90 days before applying for another operator
2. Customer needs to give an undertaking to his current operator that he wishes to switch to another service operator
3. Customers will obviously charged a fee for doing this. Though no fee has been confirmed for now, expect it to be around Rs. 300
4. Post-paid users need to show a proof of no outstanding payments to the new operator

For Operators:

1. An operator needs to carry out checks like identity verification etc. and should be completed within 5 days
2. Operators need to inform customers about the exact time and date when the porting will happen
3. A new operator is not obliged to pay any outstanding payments of the ported customer to his original service provider
4. In case of a no service period during porting, the new operator has to send a list of messages and missed calls during the same period