The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has initiated
action by issuing show cause notices to service providers including Bharti
Airtel, Idea Cellular, Loop Mobile, Reliance Communications and Vodafone) for
violation of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) Regulations 2009.

Complaints have been received against some of the
telecom operators including Reliance for overcharging and preventing the customers
from porting,” said Milind Deora, the minister of state for communications and information
technology.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has received complaints from
some customers regarding wrong rejection of porting requests by telecom
operators. They also came to know through media regarding Rs.10/- being charged
for a message (SMS) for requesting porting code through Number ‘1900’.

TRAI has taken the following action:

(i) TRAI has issued direction dated 3rd December 2010 to all Cellular Mobile
Telephone Service Providers and Unified Access Service Providers prohibiting
extra charges for SMS sent to Short code ‘1900’.

(ii) In order to reduce the porting rejections by the service providers, TRAI
issued direction to the telecom service providers on 24th May 2011 specifying
that rejection under contractual obligation can be done on the following
grounds:

– The post paid connection with bundled handset with contractual obligation
having exit clause and the subscriber has not complied with the same; and

– Corporate connection with contractual obligation having an exit clause and
the subscriber has not complied with the same.

– Regarding outstanding payment it is specified that if the outstanding payment
due from the subscriber, in the previous paid bill, is less than rupees ten,
then the service provider may include the same in the subsequent bill of the
subscriber without any penal charges.

By Telecomlead.com Team
[email protected]