One in four Indian citizens struggles with mobile number portability: Report

TRAI has proposed modifications to the regulations governing mobile number portability (MNP) to enhance security. Image: Shutterstock

Getting your mobile number ported can be a bit of a pain, and the latest report by LocalCircles serves as a testament stating that one in four mobile subscribers who ported their number in the last 24 months struggled with the process. Earlier this week, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), proposed modifications to the regulations governing mobile number portability (MNP) to enhance security by preventing fraudulent activities.

As per the proposed amendment, it will be mandatory for the donor operator to transmit the customer's demographic information to the porting operator, the network to which the customer intends to transfer. The porting operator is then required to verify this information against the customer's submission. However, this could potentially create challenges for consumers unless operators efficiently streamline the submission and verification processes.

The report by the social media platform and pollster focusing on governance, public and consumer interest issues, surveyed more than 20,000 citizens in 300+ districts in India highlights that 47 percent of consumers who ported their number to a different mobile service provider in the last 24 months rate the process as easy, and 25 percent rate it to be difficult. As for the issues that consumers face while porting their mobile number to a different service provider, 11 percent of consumers said the original service provider barred the number from sending outgoing messages/calls, and 24 percent of consumers said that their original service provider took a lot of time to process the request. However, 32 percent of consumers did not face any issues porting their mobile numbers.

In conclusion, the survey report highlights the pressing need for process enhancement that TRAI should undertake by collaborating with operators to ensure a more user-friendly MNP experience.
It also implies that TRAI's recent amendment should only be put into effect after operators have addressed the current inefficient processes and successfully automated, tested, and optimised the submission and demographic matching procedures for customers.