Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability Regulations Amendment

TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE GAZETTE OF INDIA, EXTRAORDINARY, PART III, SECTION 4

TELECOM REGULATORY AUTHORITY OF INDIA NOTIFICATION

New Delhi, the 13th December, 2018

TELECOMMUNICATION MOBILE NUMBER PORTABILITY (SEVENTH AMENDMENT) REGULATIONS, 2018 (9 of 2018)

No. 116-6/2017-NSL-II ---- In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 36, read with sub-clauses (i), (iii) and (v) of clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 11, of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 (24 of 1997), the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India hereby makes the following regulations to further amend the Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability Regulations, 2009 (8 of 2009), namely:-

1. (1) These regulations may be called the Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability (Seventh Amendment) Regulations, 2018 (9 of 2018).

(2) These regulations shall come into force after six months from the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2. In regulation 2 of the Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability Regulations, 2009 (8 of 2009) (hereinafter referred to as principal regulations),--

(a) in clause (a), after the words, “Unified Access Service license or Unified license (access service) or unified license having authorization to provide access service”, the words “or Unified License (Virtual Network Operator) having authorization to provide access service” shall be inserted;

(b) after clause (ba), the following clauses shall be inserted, namely:-

“(bb) ancillary service charge means the charge paid to the Mobile Number Portability Service provider at the rate specified by the Authority from time to time and includes the charges to be paid by --

(i) the Number Range Holder for facilitating return of the mobile number after disconnection due to any reason including non-payment;

(ii) the Access Provider for downloading the Number Portability database;

(iii) the Donor operator for execution of porting withdrawal request of its subscriber;

(iv) the Recipient Operator for facilitation of reconnection of ported subscriber in its network;

(v) the Donor Operator for facilitation of disconnection of the mobile number of the postpaid subscriber who has not cleared the dues of the Donor Operator after porting his number;

(c) in clause (e), for the words, “a Cellular Mobile Telecom Service provider or Unified Access Service provider” the words, “an Access Provider” shall be substituted;

(d) in clause (jb) for the words “in an MNP Zone” the words “for the licensed service area” shall be substituted;

(e) after clause (jb), the following clause shall be inserted namely:-

"(jc) “Network Service Operator” means the operator defined under the Unified License (Virtual Network Operator) which owns the telecom core network and provides core network service to the Virtual Network Operator to connect different parts of the access network and gateway to other networks;”;

(f) in clause (n) for the words “processing the porting request” the words “each successful porting” shall be substituted;

(g) in clause (t), for the words, “by an Access Provider”, the words, “by the Mobile Number Portability Service Provider of the Zone to which the mobile number belongs to” shall be substituted;

3. For regulation 5 of the principal regulations, the following regulation shall be substituted, namely:

“5. Obligation to set up mechanism for allocation of unique porting code.-- (1) Every Access Provider shall set up, in its mobile network, a mechanism for the purpose of receiving Short Message Service (SMS) from its subscribers requesting for a unique porting code and forwarding the same to the Mobile Number Portability zone to which the mobile number belongs;

(2) Every Mobile Number Portability service provider shall set up, in its network, a mechanism for the purpose of--

(a) receiving requests for unique porting code forwarded by the Donor Operator as per sub-regulation (1) of regulation 5;

(b) checking from the database of the Donor Operator through query response mechanism, on the applicable grounds of rejection of request for Unique porting code;

(c) allocating a unique porting code for each such request and communicating it to the subscriber forthwith through Short Message Service; and

(d) retaining such unique porting code on its records for the purpose of verification of the porting request of such subscriber to be received from the Recipient Operator.

Provided that the Mobile Number Portability service provider shall -------

(a) identify and allot a distinct identification code denoted with prefix ‘C’ for the request received from the distinct corporate mobile numbers; and

(b) in case of a request for simultaneous porting of more than one corporate mobile numbers, allocate separate unique porting code for each corporate mobile number.”

4. In regulation 6 of the principal regulations, after regulation 6, the following regulations shall be inserted namely:-

“6A. Process to be performed by Mobile Number Portability Service provider before allocating unique porting code.—(1) Upon receipt of the request for unique porting code, the concerned Mobile Number Portability Service provider shall check the following conditions from its database whether:-

(a) the mobile number has been ported earlier and, if so, a period of ninety days has not elapsed from the date of its last porting;

(b) porting request is already in process for the same mobile number; and

(c) unique porting code has already been issued and not expired yet.

(2) Where Mobile Number Portability Service provider finds that the clause (a) or (b) or (c) mentioned in sub-regulation (1) are applicable, the Mobile Number Portability Service provider shall not generate unique porting code and shall communicate the reason of non-generation of unique porting code to the subscriber through SMS.

(3) Where Mobile Number Portability Service provider finds that the clause (a) and (b) and (c) mentioned in sub-regulation (1) are not applicable, it shall check immediately on real time basis from the database of Donor Operator whether:-

(a) the number is a Corporate mobile number;

(b) there are outstanding payments due from the post paid subscriber by way of pending bill, issued as per the normal billing cycle but before the date of request for unique porting code;

(c) the porting request has been made before the expiry of a period of ninety days from the date of activation of a new connection;

(d) a request for change of ownership of mobile number is under process;

(e) the mobile number sought to be ported is sub-judice;

(f) porting of the mobile number has been prohibited by a court of law;

(g) there are subsisting contractual obligations in respect of which an exit clause has been provided in the subscriber agreement but the subscriber has not complied with such exit clause;

(4) The Donor Operator shall ensure that its query response mechanism provides the response, as sought by the Mobile Number Portability Service provider under sub-regulation (3) on real time basis.

(5) The Mobile Number Portability Service provider shall retain the information obtained by it under sub-regulation (3) for taking necessary action, on receipt of the porting request of the subscriber, from Recipient Operator.

(6) If the Mobile Number Portability Service provider finds that the request of the subscriber is not covered under the grounds contained in the clauses (b) to (g) of sub-regulation (3), it shall allocate unique porting code to the subscriber and communicate the same to the subscriber through SMS:

Provided that the unique porting code shall be prefixed by ‘C’ for corporate mobile number.

(7) If the Mobile Number Portability Service provider is not able to check the information from the database of the Donor Operator, as provided in the sub-regulation (3), for any technical reason, it shall send an SMS to the subscriber acknowledging his request for unique porting code informing him that delivery of unique porting code is delayed due to technical reason and the same shall be delivered shortly: