CHENNAI, INDIA: August 2008 saw an important milestone in the Indian telecom journey with the announcement of not just guidelines for the 3G Spectrum but also for an MNP service license.

MNP stands for Mobile Number Portability, which would bring smiles to millions of people across the nation. Why? In layman’s terms, MNP would enable a user to shift his preferences from one mobile service provider to a compatriot either in GSM or even between CDMA and a GSM service whilst possessing the current number in place.

This announcement was met with a mix of speculation and excitement amongst the service providers as it puts in enormous pressure on them to provide world-class service or else they would lose their customers to their own competitors.

MNP to commence by 2009

According to experts, 2009 would the year when Indian telecom would commence and realize its dream of not just having 3G technologies in its stable but also the advent of MNP. The nation would be divided into two zones before this project gets executed.

A Raja, Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology, while speaking to CyberMedia News averred, “As announced earlier during the 3G policy announcement, the nation would be divided into two zones before the execution of MNP and the implementation would happen in the four metros of the country in the beginning.”

The minister said, subsequently it would be taken to other parts of the country as well. Raja is quite optimistic about 2009 as the major thrust for telecom revolution would be in the rural areas with operators’ already taking steps in this direction.

Ramandeep Singh, CTO of Calsoft Labs enthused: “From a technology point of view (MNP) is definitely possible. It’s only a matter of regulatory and how much the government forces it. We don’t see any issue from the technology and the service providers would have to put an infrastructure to do that and it’s the motivation of the service provider.”

Many analysts are sanguine about the number portability breakthrough happening in 2009 and with the country exceeding the target of 250 million subscribers in 2007 and expecting to exceed the next target of 500 million by 2010, MNP would only add pressure and excitement for the service providers and users respectively.

The question of MNP coming to India looks a certain reality for now.