TRAI: No change in license fee for nationwide mobile number portability

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has asked the Department of Telecom (DoT) not to make any changes in entry fee and bank guarantee of companies managing MNP (mobile number portability) service.

MNP allows mobile subscribers to shift their exisiting mobile service on to network of any telecom operator throughout the country while retaining same number. But, at present, MNP allows to change network within the same telecom circle only.

The DoT sought the recommendations of TRAI for implementing full MNP across the country. After consultation with the stakeholders and examination of various issues, TRAI had given its recommendations to DoT.

The DoT also asked TRAI to give its opinion for additional entry fee, Performance Bank Guarantee (PBG) and Financial Bank Guarantee (FBG) to be charged from the existing MNP licensees for enhancement of scope of their license.

TRAI said that the potential subscribers to avail nationwide MNP would be very small, but it will require additional costs to provide nationwide MNP. Currently there are only two companies- Syniverse Technologies and MNP Interconnection Telecom Solution provide MNP service and they have still around five years before their licenses' validity expires.

"Presently, the revenue source for these service providers are only the per port transaction charge of Rs. 19 received from the Access Providers. They are dependent on the porting volumes alone to recover this cost and earn profits. As the porting volumes for full MNP is not evident, recovering the cost for modifications is already a concern to them," said TRAI.

As per the license agreement, 50 percent of the PBG amount i.e. Rs. 50 lakh needs to be released after the completion of one year of operation. But DoT has not yet released this amount. The remaining 50 percent needs to be released after the expiry of the license period.

The regulator has also recommended that DoT should continue with existing norm of keeping FBG equivalent to licence fee of two quarter shall be continued.