Trai caps fee on mobile porting at a low Rs 19

Mobile users will pay at most Rs 19 to retain their old number each time they switch service provider. That's the porting charge ceiling set by telecom regulator Trai on Friday in the run-up to the launch of mobile number portability (MNP) in category A circles from January and the rest of the country by next March. However, under Trai regulations issued in July, mobile users will have to wait 90 days before they can switch networks.

The porting charge is a fee paid to an MNP service provider by the mobile operator that a subscriber wishes to switch to. Operators are likely to pass on this cost to incoming subscribers. The country's 22 circles have been equally divided between two operators chosen to implement MNP: Syniverse Technologies (north and western India) and Telcordia (east and southern India).

The porting charge fixed by Trai is significantly lower than the Rs 200 it recommended in 2006. Explaining the reduced ceiling, Trai chairman JS Sarma told FE, "We have extensively gone through the cost data given to us by the two MNP service providers. We have considered a period of five years for the total capital expenditure and taken into account 15% as return on capital employed to calculate the porting charges."

Number portability will be implemented almost a year-and-a-half after the government issued guidelines for the MNP service licence in August 2008.