Jio, Airtel, Vodafone Idea (Vi) customers will soon be able to port out on any recharge plan | 91mobiles.com

In a two page order put out on Thursday, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said, “The Authority, hereby directs all access service providers to enable, with immediate effect, for all mobile subscribers, both prepaid and postpaid, requesting for a unique porting code, the facility to send SMS on short code 1900.” Mobile Number Portability (MNP) needs subscribers to send a message to their operators. After which, it takes around 4-5 days to process the porting request further. 

Now, Vodafone Idea requires subscribers to recharge with the Rs 179 plan instead of the Rs 149 recharge plan to avail the SMS services. So, subscribers with lower value recharge plans can’t port out to other operators. Also, subscribers might not port to rival operators once recharging their numbers with a higher plan, thus creating a barrier for customers to move to other telecom operators.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said that it had received several complaints of subscribers being unable to send messages to 1990 for porting out despite having a sufficient balance. “This is in contravention of provisions of MNP regulation as it takes away the rights of customers to avail the Mobile Number portability facility,” said TRAI.