Telecom regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Friday announced the charges for mobile number portability (MNP) which enables subscribers to switch telecom operators without getting their phone numbers changed.

TRAI said the MNP users will have to pay a maximum of Rs 19 to change the telecom operator while retaining the old number. Number portability will first be a reality in Metros and A category circles and then across India by March 2010.

To port his number, the subscriber will have to request the new operator for acceptance of his connection. The process will have to be completed in four days and the subscriber will have to give porting charges to the new operator.

This could be one window of opportunity that new licencees could be looking at to connect with potential subscribers. Existing operators could also see this as an opportunity to let go of those subscribers who are not profitable.

“The principal loss in any kind of number portability are the incumbents, i.e. the bigger players who have been in the market earlier. The number of people who are likely to port is believed by most analysts to be around 2-3 per cent,” said Mahesh Uppal, a telecom analyst.

A study done by AC Nielsen on the impact of number portability earlier this year had indicated that 55 per cent of the respondents were satisfied with their mobile operator and 48 per cent with their network quality.

Prepaid, low and medium spenders are not motivated to switch operators. Circles where high retention levels was noticed were Chennai, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and UP East.

Loyalty among older subscribers and women was found to be stronger than others.

Syniverse Technologies (Zone 1) and MNP Interconnection (Zone 2) are the two companies who have been licenced by the DoT to carry out the MNP exercise. (With PTI inputs)