Telecom Lead India: In 2013, Indian mobile users will benefit from nationwide Mobile Number Portability (MNP) and free roaming.
Hope Election Commission will not ban telecom minister Kapil Sibal for making these two announcements just ahead of Gujarat election.
Nationwide Mobile Number Portability (MNP) will allow users to retain their numbers even if they move from one state to another.
“For the timely implementation of the National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2012, the Department of Telecom has finalised broad agenda for next three months from December 2012 to February 2013,” Sibal said at the ‘India Telecom 2012’ here.
TRAI on Wednesday said MNP requests increased from 69.78 million subscribers in September 2012 to 75.14 million in October 2012. In October 2012 alone, 5.36 million requests have been made for MNP.
As per the data reported by the service providers, by the end of October 2012 about 75.14 million subscribers have submitted their requests to different service providers for porting their mobile number.
In MNP Zone-I (Northern & Western India) maximum number of requests have been received in Rajasthan (7.15 million) followed by Maharashtra (6.51 million) whereas in MNP Zone-II (Southern & Eastern) maximum number of requests have been received in Karnataka (9.37 million) followed by Andhra Pradesh Service area (7.02 million). In the month of September 2012, total number of subscribers who have submitted their request for MNP is 5.36 million.
Meanwhile, active wireless subscribers on the date of Peak VLR in October 2012 are 703.92 million, 77.85 percent of the total subscribers.
The number of telephone subscribers in India decreased to 935.18 million at the end of October, 2012 from 937.70 million at the end of September 2012, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of -0.27 percent. The share of urban subscribers has declined to 63.17 percent from 63.53 percent whereas share of rural subscribers has increased to 36.83 percent in the month of October 2012. With this, the overall Teledensity in India reached 76.75 at the end of October, 2012 from 77.04 of the previous month.
