Our Bureau

New Delhi, Oct. 6 The Department of Telecom has set up a committee to work out the modalities of allowing number portability within the same operator’s network. The move follows opposition from GSM operators to allow any operator to offer number portability before it is implemented for the rest of the industry.

Number portability allows subscribers to change their operator or technology without having to give up on their phone number. The DoT had earlier said that operators with dual technology can implement number portability within its own network. This meant that a company such as Reliance Communications would be able to offer a GSM connection to its existing CDMA subscribers.

However, the Cellular Operators Association of India in a presentation to DoT said that this could result in an unfair advantage to dual-technology operators besides financial losses to the Government.

COAI said that all forms of number portability should be introduced simultaneously and should be operated through the licensed agency. “If internal number portability is allowed between two networks of one operator, it will make audit of spectrum usage impossible, and therefore, there could be manipulation in the payment of spectrum charges resulting in a huge loss to the government,” the COAI Director- General, Mr T.V. Ramachandran, said in a presentation to DoT.

COAI also fears that such a policy would lead to manipulation of subscriber figures to get additional spectrum. GSM operators said that a company like Reliance could get 5 lakh CDMA subscribers to shift to its GSM platform and then ask the Government for additional spectrum.

According to the earlier announced guidelines for number portability, a centralised agency would be set up to operate the database required for implementing the scheme. However, in the case of internal number portability, operators can implement it by bypassing the centralised agency.

COAI said that if DoT allows dual-technology operators to offer number portability within their own network without the use of the centralised agency, then GSM operators should also be allowed to get into mutual agreements with each other.

However, it added that allowing operators to set up their own database would make the concept of a separate MNP licensee redundant. CDMA operators, on the other hand, have asked the Government to go ahead with its proposal to allow internal portability of numbers.

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