Thaindian News

New Delhi, Nov 4 (IANS) The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Friday asked telecom service provider Vodafone not to reject number portability requests on the plea of contractual obligations. The telecom watchdog also sought a compliance report within seven days.

“The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India hereby directs Vodafone to comply with the provisions of the Telecommunications Mobile Number Portability Regulations, 2009, and direction dated May 24, 2011, and not to reject porting requests on the ground of contractual obligations contrary to the provisions of the aforesaid regulations and direction,” TRAI said in a statement.

“…furnish compliance report to the authority within a period of seven days,” it added.

According to TRAI, a porting request cannot be rejected on the basis of contractual obligations except if the subscriber has entered into a contract getting a bundled handset with a postpaid connection having an exit clause and the subscriber has not complied with the same, or in cases of corporate connections with exit clause with which the customer has not again complied with.

TRAI said that porting requests also cannot be rejected if a customer’s outstanding dues are less than Rs.10.

Mobile number portability (MNP) is the service which allows a mobile phone user to switch subscribers without changing his mobile number. It was launched on Jan 20 across the country.