The Hindu Business Line : TRAI to issue paper on number portability soon

Mr Pradip Baijal, Chairman, TRAI (left), with Mr Jorma Ollila, Chairman & CEO-Worldwide, Nokia Corporation, at the CII Telecom Summit in the Capital on Thursday. — Ramesh Sharma

New Delhi , March 4

THE Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) proposes to issue a consultation paper on number portability in a month's time, which would enable customers to retain their telephone number even while switching service providers or networks.

This was stated by Mr Rajendra Singh, Advisor (Mobile), TRAI, while addressing the CII telecom Summit 2004 here on Thursday.

``At present we are having discussions with consultants and are studying number portability practice applicable in different countries. We are going to come out with a consultation paper in a month's time. While TRAI understands that number portability is a consumer-friendly move, a deciding factor for the issue would be to see as to what extent such an arrangement could increase the cost to operators. These will be the issues when we come out with the consultation paper, and the inputs of the stakeholders would help us to take a decision,'' he said.

He, however, did not specify as to whether the number portability scheme would envisage only mobile numbers in the first phase or would also allow switching between fixed lines.

As regards the Cellular Operator's Association of India (COAI), demand to allow direct intra-circle connectivity, he noted that these issues have been raised in the preliminary consultation paper for unified licence.

On the issue of carrier access code, which would allow users to choose their own long distance operator, he said that the authority had already held discussions with access providers.

Speaking at the summit, Mr Kishore Chauker, Managing Director, Tata Industries, noted that Tata Teleservices plans to invest $2.0 billion in expanding facilities in a booming market for wireless services.

The company will spend the money on expanding networks in six circles and rolling out the CDMA-based mobile and fixed line services in 11 new circles by mid-2004, he said.

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