Finally ! After many attempts at  implementation and delays in between and a few months of pilot testing, the Mobile Number Portability is rolling out all over India from today. Prime Minister of India  Mr. Manmohan Singh will launch the MNP Officially in India!

Mobile Number Portability was long due in India as there were some initial glitches over the past year. Initially the MNP services  were launched in some of the regions of north India  on a small scale basis for testing purposes, but now it’s all set to reach all the states in India.

Although it’ll launch from today, marketing efforts of the Service Providers had started a while back with fancy services adverts from providers, to lure the customers to use their services.

How to Change the Mobile Service Provider without Changing Your Number?

Well if you are dis satisfied with your current provider or just want to try out a new providers service then you can do that with few easy steps.

• Send an SMS to 1900 with “PORT [Space] [Existing Mobile Number]”  (without the Quotes) .
• In reply, you will receive a Unique Porting  Code (UPC).
• This code is to be provided to your desired new Service Provider (by filling up the provider specific form with the UPC Code) with proper identity proofs and other documents with nominal charges of Rs 19/- only.
• You will get a new SIM and within 4 days  of application.
• The Service Provider will contact the subscriber  to notify about the actual commencement date of the porting .
• Make  a note of  things like  there are no pending bills and there won’t be any carry forwarding of the existing balance of older provider to newer one.

You can shift from a GSM service to CDMA or vice versa. You can use number portability for any post-paid as well as prepaid number too!

If you again want to change the service provider from the newer one to some other provider, then you have to wait for at least a 90 days period before doing so. The portability facility will be available only within a given licensed service area.