Questionnaire on Mobile Number Poratability

hasn't been long since our Prime Minister announced mobile number portability across the country. The main question still remains, why should someone change to a different operator? One (big) reason is that before MNP was actually announced, switching to another operator involved a procedure of submitting documents and in the end when you finally got your number, you had to inform family, friends and colleagues about the change.

All that will now change with the introduction of MNP. Here is a list of Frequently Asked Questions regarding Mobile Number Portability.

What is Mobile Number Portability?
If you’ve not been updated about this, this service lets you stick to your current number and switch to another operator. For instance, if you are not happy with your current service provider, or if you’re getting a better tariff plan that suits your requirement with another, you can change to that particular provider without having to give up your existing number.

Is it possible to change service operators between circles? For E.g. Move to another city and change to a different operator
Well you can’t do this, at least for now. The Department of Telecom (DoT) has allotted two zones so that all number porting requests don’t overload a single Mobile Clearing House.

Zone I consists of Delhi, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Eastern and Western Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir Licensed Service Areas (LSA).

Zone II includes Kolkata, Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, North East and Orissa LSAs

Because of the configuration of individual Telecom circles, porting can happen between Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh; Bihar & Jharkhand; Rest of West Bengal & Andaman and Nicobar; within the states of the North East except Assam. Apart from these states, you cannot move between any other circle or zone. So if you want to switch operators between