Portability needs a complex set of backend actions, covering areas including call delivery billing, caller , IDs, calling name presentation, order activation, roamer registration and support, customer service and SMS centres.
The customer would have to incur a higher fee for switching over to another operator while retaining a mobile number. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India will decide the methodology of arriving at a tariff for portability. Mobile operators would have to upgrade their networks to enable portability.
Reliance Communications chairman Anil Ambani, and the Association of United Service Providers of India, the lobby group for CDMA operators, welcomed the move. "This is a forward-looking initiative. It is pro-competition, pro-consumer and above all prochoice," Ambani said.
Source- Hindustan Times, Dated, November-13-2007
