Kapil Sibal launches MNP in Haryana

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Finally, the mobile number portability became a reality, when Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology Kapil Sibal launched the service at Rohtak, in Haryana on Thursday.

Sibal launched the service by making the inaugural call to Bhupindrer Singh Hooda, the Chief Minister of Haryana, from a ported mobile number.

Speaking on the occasion Sibal announced that this service will be launched in the entire country on January 20, 2011. The Minister said now the mobile subscribers of Haryana will be able to exercise their choice of telecom service provider. He said the choice-based services initiate healthy competition among service providers which ultimately benefits ‘Aam Aadmi’.

The minister, who has got the additional charge of telecom and IT following the resignation of A.Raja, said that as a result of forward looking policies of the government and active contribution from the telecom service providers, mobile subscriber base has reached around 700 million from mere 33 million in March, 2004.

As continued efforts of the Government to increase competition in the market and to provide wider choice to customer, Mobile Number Portability will be an important step.

The networks in all the remaining 21 Licensed Service Areas have started migration for working in the MNP environment. For orderly technical migration of complex interconnected networks, each of the remaining service areas will be migrated one by one on alternate days, he added.

This will enable simultaneous validation of technical parameters and removal of any problems arising from migration activity to ensure successful and smooth migration of a service area. Migration activities will not take place during the festival season at the end of December, 2010.

Speaking on the occasion, Sachin Pilot, the Union Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology said that Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is making an all out efforts to bridge the rural urban divide through telecom technology.

He added that India is now ushering into an era of convergence of technology and mobile applications which will enable us to ensure delivery of quality services in the rural and far flung, remote areas.

The Secretary, DoT, R. Chandrashekhar said on the occasion that this facility will intensify the competition among service providers both in respect of quantity of services and quality of service as well as in terms of tariff.