Finally after so many delays, Mobile Number Portability is finally here. It allows subscribers to retain numbers even after changing service operators. The service is being rolled out in 11 circles of the country, the first one is Haryana. Haryana will be getting MNP on November 1st and remaining circles by December 20th.

An official announcement will be made on 1st of November regarding the launch of service on 11 circles. Implementation would be done by 1st or 2nd week of November.

Syniverse Technologies, has been selected by the telecom department as one of the clearing houses for implementing MNP. It will manage the first phase of the roll-out.

We are waiting for 3G and mobile number portability since a long time. There have been a lot of delays since a long time, now it looks like there would be a final decision on the MNP service at least by October 31, 2010.

The TRAI, in a recent announcement has directed mobile operator in the country to implement MNP by October 31 this year or be ready to face the consequences. If that wasn’t all, the Department of Telecom (DoT) made it clear to operators yesterday that the infrastructure for and tests for porting numbers from one service provider to another are to be completed before September 1. If they fail to do that, the service providers would be barred from launching new commercial services in any area, starting September 1.

With mobile number portability we would be able to retain our number even if we want to change our service provider. This will lead to a lot of competition between the mobile service providing companies. Mobile operators have delayed MNP a lot over various problem due to which last deadline June 30 was missed.

Let’s see if the mobile operators are able to do the needful by the October 31.