What is Number Portability?

What is MNP exactly and why should you care? It matters if your mobile telecom network
operator is not giving you the level of service you desire or the type of call plans you want. You
might have a mobile phone number that you'd like to keep – because you have given that number
to everyone and changing the number will be painful, might prevent some old acquaintances
from contacting you, and/or affect your business.

In such a case, you'd like to retain your current mobile phone number, yet shift to a different
telecom operator.

Mobile number portability (MNP) enables mobile telephone users to retain their mobile
telephone numbers when changing from one mobile network operator to another.

MNP allows consumers and businesses to keep their existing telephone numbers when they
switch operators. It, literally, means that numbers are portable from operator to operator -
whether that operator is a mobile, wireline, or VoIP service provider.

Number Portability benefits everyone.

It gives subscribers the freedom to choose operators based on criteria like services, price, and
customer service. Their freedom of movement is not influenced by the inconveniences and costs
that come with changing numbers.

It also makes it easier for operators to compete for customers, precisely because it eliminates a
major barrier to churn - that is, reluctance to change numbers. Although this increased risk of
churn is a concern among some operators, number portability has been a huge success around the
world, because it helps to level the playing field, giving all operators more opportunities to grow
their subscriber bases and revenues.

General overview
MNP is implemented in different ways across the globe. The international and European
standard is for a customer wishing to port his/her number to contact the new provider (Recipient)
who will then arrange necessary process with the old provider (Donor). This is also known as
'Recipient-Led' porting. The UK is the only country to not implement a Recipient-Led system,
where a customer wishing to port his/her number is required to contact the Donor to obtain a
Porting Authorisation Code (PAC) which he/she then has to give to the Recipient. Once having
received the PAC the Recipient continues the port process by contacting the Donor. This form of
porting is also known as 'Donor-Led' and has been criticised by some industry analysts as being
inefficient. It has also been observed that it may act as a customer deterrent as well as allowing
the Donor an opportunity of 'winning-back' the customer. This might lead to distortion of
competition, especially in the markets with new entrants that are yet to achieve scalability of
operation.

In India MNP launched recently which is Donor Led. Only the terminology is changed from
PAC to UPC (Unique Porting Code)

Technical details
A significant technical aspect of MNP (Mobile Number Portability) is related to the routing of
calls or mobile messages (SMS, MMS) to a number once it has been ported. There are various
flavours of call routing implementation across the globe but the international and European best
practice is via the use of a central database (CDB) of ported numbers. Network operator makes
copies of CDB and queries it to find out which network to send a call to. This is also known as
All Call Query (ACQ) and is highly efficient and scalable. Majority of the established and
upcoming MNP systems across the world are based on this ACQ/CDB method of call routing.
One of the very few countries to not use ACQ/CDB is the UK where calls to a number once it
has been ported are still routed via the Donor network. This is also known as 'Indirect Routing'
and is highly inefficient as it is wasteful of transmission and switching capacity. Because of its
Donor dependent nature, Indirect Routing also means that if the Donor network develops a fault
or goes out of business, the customers who have ported out of that network will lose incoming
calls to their numbers. The UK telecoms regulator Ofcom completed its extended review of the
UK MNP process on 29 November 2007 and mandated that ACQ/CDB be implemented for
mobile to mobile ported calls by no later than 1 September 2009.

Prior to March 2008 it took a minimum of 5 working days to port a number in the UK compared
to 2 hours only in USA, as low as 20 minutes in the Republic of Ireland, 3 minutes in Australia
and even a matter of seconds in New Zealand. On 17 July 2007, Ofcom released its conclusions
from the review of UK MNP and mandated reduction of porting time to 2 working days with
effect from 1 April 2008. On 29 November 2007, Ofcom completed its consultation on further
reduction to porting time to 2 hours along with recipient led porting and mandated that near-
instant (no more than 2 hours) recipient led porting be implemented by no later than 1 September
2009.

In a decentralised model of MNP, a FNR (Flexible Number Register) may be used to manage a
database of ported out/ported in numbers for call routing

In India as MNP is recently launched Number Port process takes 7 Days as of now. Which is the
Highest Turn Around Time across World.
Five facts about Mobile Number Portability:
1. Technology behind MNP
Admittedly, porting mobile numbers is not as simple as pushing a button. There is a lot that has
to happen behind the scenes to allow for it. Expensive equipment, logistics on a mind-boggling
scale, and ensuring checks-and-balances by appointing a third-party company to carry out these
operations on behalf of both (originating and destination) operators.

2. Operator Fear
The so-called "incumbent" mobile telephony operators have been in the space for a long time.
The number of dis-satisfied users are inevitably in direct proportion. When new companies enter
the mobile operator space, they have nothing to lose (atleast at first) with MNP. Those operators
who have been around longer, fear losing existing customers, with good reason. Besides, prized
phone number sequences (98484 84848 for example) can be lost to other operators, instead of
returning to an operator's own pool of available numbers to hand-out.

3. Logistics, Verifying User Identity

Changing your telephone/mobile/internet provider has always been a "moving" experience. Ask
LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) customers in UK and New Zealand about the horrors! Would you
have to apply at your prospective mobile operator first, or request porting a number from your
existing operator first? Would you have to submit your Proof of Identity documents thrice (old
operator, new operator, portability agency)? Despite rules that say the process should complete
in 4 days, how long will the porting process take? If there is an interim period when you are
effectively a customer of both operators, do you have to pay monthly rental to both?

4. Lock in Period, Inter-circle Issues

After porting your phone number, you are locked in to the new provider for 90 days (three
months). If you want to change again, you have no option but to wait out that period. Currently,
the Indian government only mentions number portability within a circle (meaning a state in most
cases). So you cannot retain the same phone number if you move from Bombay to Delhi.

5. How To Identify A Phone Number?

With landline telephones, all you have to do is look at the STD code, the initial few digits and
you can immediately identify a phone number's attributes (physical location and telecom
operator). Until MNP comes into effect, you can still do something similar with mobile numbers
too. But after implementation, identifying operator, approximate area and age of a number will
become that much harder.

MNP in INDIA
The first phase of MNP (Mobile Number Portability) in India was rolled out on 25th November from the
Harayna Circle.