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A little Mobile Number Portability:
Mobile number portability or MNP is service
which allows one to change his or her telecom service provider
company without changing the mobile or phone number.
India is divided into many telecom circles
or zones. If a subscriber moves from one zone or circle to
another roaming charges apply. A subscriber’s circle where his
number is issued is called his home circle and in case he or she
moves out of it to another circle he or she needs to pay
additional charges for both receiving and outgoing calls and SMS.
These charges are called roaming charges.
Often a times a mobile subscriber has to
move from one telecom circle to another for longer period of
time (due to studies, job etc.) or permanently. In such cases
now due to recently introduced MNP, one can keep his or her
existing mobile number and switch to other service provider in
the same or different circle. This service is only called as
mobile number portability.
To avail MNP service follow the step by
step guide below:
1.
Send an SMS “PORT 9123123123” to 1900. Replace
9123123123 with your mobile number.
2.
You will receive your UPC or Unique porting code in
reply SMS.
3.
Walk into your new telecom service provider office,
to which you want to port your number, with you UPC and
identity proof.
4.
You will get a new sim from the new service provider.
5.
Replace your older sim with the one received.
6.
In next 48 hours porting would be done and you can
use the new sim to make and receive calls using your old
number.
Points to consider while porting your
number:
1.
Make sure to check the coverage of the new telecom
service company in your area before porting.
2.
Unused credit or balance in your account would not be
transferred.
3.
During the porting process you would not be able to
top up or recharge your number with credit or balance in
case of prepaid number.
4.
In case you are porting from a CDMA technology based
telecom service provider to GSM technology based telecom
service provider or vice-versa you would need to change your
handset device too.
Porting of BSNL/MTNL fixed land line number
is not possible at the moment. The service is only available for
mobile numbers currently in India. International porting of
numbers is also not possible. The charges for the service are
nominal and most of the times are free or Rs.30 maximum vary
from mobile operator to operator.
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