Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Mobile Number Portability coming

It looks like we in India can keep the same mobile number even after changing providers.
Syniverse & Telcordia to Provide Mobile Number Portability in India


After having suffered many times by incorrect billing, I'm anticipating the following:

1. "Sir, we don't know why this charge is added in your bill Sir. Can you contact the other provider?"

2. "Sir, our billing systems are yet to be integrated and upgraded Sir. meanwhile can you please pay the bill to avoid disconnection? "

3. "Sir, We have two database records showing against your number Sir. Can you please send your name proof, address proof and birth certificate so that we can ascertain your identity Sir?"

4. "Sir, this is the right PBX number. However our calling system can transfer your call to only the old provider Sir. ...Sorry sir - we don't know the new provider's phone no Sir"

5. "Sir, we have miscellaneous charges. Your old provider had Other Charges. Now we have clubbed both and added a surcharge to make General Charges Sir".

6. "Sir, we understand your concern. But you downloaded an email from 399 plan on your old package Sir. Now since you have downloaded another email from default program of 899 plan, you are required to subscribe to new plan of 1999 Sir. No Sir, our systems are programmed this way Sir"


Okay, here's the actual news:

from IndianWeb2.com - Web 2.0 and Technology Startup News and Reviews by Vardaan
The India Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has selected
Syniverse Technologies and Telcordia Technologies to implement mobile number portability (MNP) services in the country.Noticeably both of the companies are US based.
Syniverse is a business and technology solution for the global telecommunications industry, headquartered in Tampa, Florida, USA the company was awarded a letter of intent to provide India’s telecommunications operators with number portability clearing house and centralized database solutions for the next 10 years.
Telcordia on other hand is the world’s leading provider of MNP services and has solutions deployed across nine countries, including the US, Canada, Egypt, Greece and South Africa.
Because of the project’s enormous scale, the DoT divided the country into two geographic zones for number portability implementation, each of which will be handled by a different MNP provider. Each zone is further broken down into 11 service areas that represent cities within the zone. Zone 1 will cover the northern and western regions of the country, while Zone 2 will include the south and east.
Syniverse was selected to receive the license for Zone 1, which includes the service areas of Delhi, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Gujarat and seven others. The MNP implementation will first focus on the larger metropolitan service areas before moving into the more rural locations.
As an operator-neutral third party, Syniverse will maintain an accurate, rapid and seamless number porting process for both Indian operators and their subscribers, facilitating the transfer of telephone numbers when subscribers wish to keep their numbers when changing from one operator to another.