New Delhi: Come March and users may find it difficult to retain their number while porting out from one telecom network to the other, as per media reports.


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A report in the Economic Times said that two companies –MNP Interconnection Telecom Solutions and Syniverse Technologies –that carry out Mobile number portability (MNP) services in India have written to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) that they might have to close down services owing to heavy reduction in porting fees.


The reduction in porting fees came after Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) ordered to slash charges to from Rs 19 to Rs 4 per transaction.


Under the MNP regime, a subscriber can retain the existing mobile telephone number while switching from one service provider to another or from one technology to another technology of the same service provider. It allows subscribers to retain their mobile number not only within the same Licensed Service Area (LSA) but also pan India in any LSA.


The number of telephone subscribers in India rose from 1,179.83 million at the end of February to 1,206.22 million at the end of March, a monthly growth rate of 2.24 percent, data released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said last month.


The urban subscription increased from 669.63 million at the end of February to 681.61 million at the end of March 2018 and the rural subscription also went up from 510.20 million to 524.61 million during the same period.


The overall tele-density in India increased from 90.89 at the end of February 2018 to 92.84 at the end of March 2018.


Total wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA & LTE) increased from 1,156.87 million at the end of February to 1,183.41 million at the end of March, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of 2.29 percent.


The wireless tele-density in India increased from 89.12 to 91.09.


Wireline subscribers further declined from 22.97 million at the end of February to 22.81 million at the end of March. Net decline in the wireline subscriber base was 0.15 million with a monthly decline rate of 0.67 percent.


During March, a total of 19.67 million requests were received for mobile number portability (MNP). With this, the cumulative MNP requests increased from 351.16 million at the end of February to 370.83 million at the end of March, since the implementation of MNP.


With IANS Inputs