NEW DELHI: Giving relief to companies offering mobile number portability (MNP) services (MNPSPs), the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended a hike in the fees telecom service providers pay MNPSPs by Rs 1.74 per porting transaction. Sources say that India’s two MNPSPs — Syniverse Technologies and MNP Interconnection — now stand to recover more than Rs 100 crore in arrears from telcos.
MNP is a facility that allows a user to switch telecom carriers without changing their mobile number. The recipient telecom service provider pays a fee called per port transaction charge (PPTC) to the MNP service provider for processing the request. In a draft regulation released on August 16, TRAI suggested the PPTC be raised to Rs 5.74 from Rs 4, after finding that there was an overall decline in monthly porting requests post-consolidation in the telecom industry.
While TRAI had slashed the PPTC to Rs 4 from Rs 19 in February this year, the decision was challenged in court by the MNPSPs since the sharp cut would hurt their revenue flows and impact business continuity with the Delhi High Court quashing TRAI’s order in March.