Mobile Number Portability requests in India increased to 5.84 in January 2019

New Delhi: A total of 5.84 million requests were received for Mobile number portability (MNP) during the month of January 2019, a TRAI report said.

Under MNP, wireless telephone subscribers can retain their mobile numbers when they relocate from one service area to another.

“Out of total 5.84 million requests, 3.17 million requests received from Zone-I and 2.67 million requests received from Zone-II. The cumulative MNP requests increased from 411.98 million at the end of December 2018 to 417.82 million at the end of January 2019, since the implementation of MNP,” the telecom regulator said in its report.

 Zone-I is divided into states that include Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Punjab, Rajasthan, U.P.(East) and U.P.(West). On the other hand,  Zone-II has states like Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Karnataka, Kerala, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh, North East, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

In MNP Zone-I, the highest number of requests till date have been received in Rajasthan (about 33.59 million) followed by Maharashtra (about 30.01 million) service area while in MNP Zone-II, the highest number of requests till date have been received in Karnataka (about 39.18 million) followed by Tamilnadu (about 35.56 million), TRAI said.

Haryana was the first in service area where was implemented in 2010 while the for the rest of the country it came to effect the following year.