As of March 31, 2005, fixed line incumbents, BSNL and MTNL, had 89 per cent of the total fixed line subscribers, with the rest shared by private operators. Although private operators saw an annual growth of 116.6 per cent in 2004-05, compared to the 1.5 per cent seen by the incumbents, the majority of fixed lines are with the incumbents.

The incumbent operators have a large number of exchanges with varying technical capabilities. For implementation of fixed number portability, the status of fixed networks needs detailed consideration and its suitability for the implementation of FNP needs to be examined. Also, since the numbering in fixed telephony is based on SDCAs, it has to be seen whether any change in the National Numbering Plan is required for the implementation of FNP.

Keeping all these issues in mind, TRAI considers that the issue of FNP should not be considered at this stage. It feels the consultation process should be for MNP. The issue of FNP should be taken up separately after seeing the experience in MNP.

Mobile number portability
MNP is operator portability applied to a mobile-to-mobile porting process. For MNP to be successful, fixed operators will also have to be involved in routing calls correctly. Since all calls addressed to a mobile operator are interconnected calls, conveyed to a gateway exchange, the fixed operator can either:

Competition between mobile service providers in India is already intense. The beneficiary of this competition would be the Indian consumer, and MNP may increase the level of competition further.

IN portability
India does not have a significant number of non-geographic numbers. Thus, INP will not be considered in detail.

Location portability
Location portability is the ability of a subscriber to retain an existing telephone number when changing from one physical location to another. Location portability is the porting of a geographic number from one location to another. Location portability can be within the exchange area, within the numbering area, within the charging area, or anywhere.

Unless combined with other types of portability, such as service or operator portability, location portability remains an internal network operator issue. In India, however, location portability becomes complex if the subscriber moves to a region where his original network operator has no footprint.

Location portability has varying levels of complexity depending on whether the porting is occurring within or outside an exchange area and/or charging area. There might be differing impacts of routing and billing depending on the new location of the number.

Service portability
Service portability is the ability of a subscriber to retain the existing telephone number when changing from one service to another, say from fixed to mobile service.

Implementing service portability might be useful for users who wish to use newer telecom services but value their telephone numbers. Service portability might allow these users to migrate to high-end telecom services without losing their existing phone number.

In the Indian context, service portability will encourage the introduction and adoption of new telecom services and technologies. It will also prompt service providers to continually upgrade and innovate.

However, tariff transparency might be affected if there is confusion about the charges for different phone calls. A caller may no longer be able to estimate call charges based on the format of the phone number. For introduction of service portability, the capabilities of fixed networks need to be studied in detail.

Benefits of number portability
The implementation of number portability removes barriers to competition between operators and services. It ensures a dynamic, fully competitive market. Subscribers and operators with competitive prices and high quality services are likely to be the biggest beneficiaries of this development.

There are a number of benefits that can be reaped by subscribers in a sector where number portability has been implemented. There can be cost savings for the subscriber from not having to reprint stationery, inform callers, change signs, lose business, etc. Further, increased competition in the sector may lead to efficiency and service quality improvements.

For operators with the best quality of service and coverage, and the highest "value-for-money", the benefit of number portability will stem from the fact that consumers will prefer to begin services with them and will not hesitate to join their networks if they are on a different network.

Implementing number portability
Technical options:
The technical solution adopted for the implementation of number portability will have cost implications on service providers/network operators. It will also affect the services offered and the performance of these services made available to the subscriber.

Deciding between different technical options requires the consideration of a whole range of issues. A key question that needs early resolution is the method used for routing of calls from an originating network to the recipient network. Number portability can be provided by two broad categories of methods: offswitch solutions or on-switch solutions.

Off-switch solutions
Off-switch solutions transfer the knowledge of porting information into one or more external databases that all network switches can access for queries. Interception is performed at the originating switch or at some transit switch.

This type of solution allows for the efficient routing of the call towards the recipient switch. The originating switch (or some transit switch) can intercept a call to a ported number by querying the database that contains the list of all ported numbers plus routing information associated with each ported number. Two methods can be used to access the database –­ the all-call-query or the query-on-release methods.

On-switch solutions
In the case of on-switch solutions, the donor network manages the routing information for a ported number. Thus, the donor switch performs the interception, either routing the call itself or providing routing information to the originating network that then routes the call to the recipient network. The two ways to implement on-switch solutions are onward routing and call drop back.

Out of the different technical options available, onward routing is often regarded as the simplest routing method to implement. The all-call-query method is considered the most complex. Other methods lie between these two extremes.

Even from the cost point of view, onward routing is regarded as cheaper to establish than the all-call-query method. By contrast, the ongoing costs associated with the all-call-query method are usually regarded as less than those of the onwardrouting method.

Database management
The various technical options involve the use of databases that contain routing information. The databases can be centralised or distributed.

The centralised model involves a single reference database containing data for all mobile numbers or, alternatively, all ported numbers. This reference data is usually copied to operational databases in each participating network on a frequent basis.

The distributed model involves multiple databases containing subsets of the total data. For example, in the on-switch case each separate database in the distributed model may comprise only the numbers ported from a particular mobile network operator. The full information about all mobile numbers (or all ported mobile numbers) is only available from these separate databases when taken as a whole.

The centralised database solution is perceived as a long-term target solution for number portability. It supports optimal call routing and is adapted to an environment where all operators share number information. However, it is technically much more complicated to implement, involves significant investment (even from operators who are not directly concerned with number portability such as national long distance operators –­ NLDOs –­ selected as indirect access providers), and requires considerable national coordination. The distributed database solutions might need less coordination because every operator will have to handle the information only of their ported-out or ported-in numbers.

Operational aspects
Besides the technical challenges involved in the implementation of number portability, there are a number of challenges in devising administrative arrangements that facilitate porting of numbers. Designing efficient, simple, secure and practical porting procedures involves the addressal of issues such as the role of retailers, the need to change SIM cards or handsets, existing customer obligations, authentication of customers requesting a port, communication arrangements between entities during the porting process, refusal to port, time to port, and procedures for porting large quantities of numbers at a given time.

Costs associated with number portability
The success of the introduction of number portability is highly dependent on how cost effective it is to the end-users, and the cost burden it imposes on the concerned parties for its implementation.

The costs incurred in the provision of number portability may be broadly divided into three categories: system set-up costs, call conveyance costs, and administrative costs.

System set-up costs are the costs that ensure that users have the capability to use number portability. These may be the costs of establishing/maintaining routing databases, conditioning existing networks, upgrading network switches, and modifying existing software. These are the costs that a provider may incur in establishing the capacity to provide number portability on its own network and in its associated operational support and administration.

Call conveyance costs are incurred if calls need to be transited through the donor network while administration costs are the costs incurred by service providers in closing an existing account, setting up a new account and coordinating the network operators in the switching over of the mobile number and routing of the calls; costs of new handsets or SIM cards, etc.

The three main cost components will vary depending on the technical solutions adopted for achieving number portability. An important consideration is whether costs should be considered as recoverable from the tariffs set up by the operators, or whether they should be considered as part of customer acquisition costs. It also needs to be decided whether such a decision should be a regulatory decision or a decision taken by individual operators.

The Indian scenario
The existing licensing regime divides the country into service areas within which a number of operators are licensed on a non-exclusive basis to provide a range of services. In the current licensing regime, unified access service providers can provide both fixed and cellular mobile services. In addition, NLDOs and international long distance operators (ILDOs) are separately licensed for the carriage of domestic and international long distance traffic respectively.

The state of networks
Indian mobile network operators have deployed the bulk of their networks over the past five years. The network technology, customer care, and operational support processes applied by Indian mobile operators are comparable with those throughout the world. Therefore, no unusual requirements are expected to come up for India specifically. This does not mean that the mobile networks would not require upgrading to support MNP, but that the scale of changes required, the time-frames involved and the costs of upgrading may be reasonably low.

The possibility of phased implementation
The existing licensing structure creates the possibility of implementing number portability on a progressive basis, by service area. Implementing number portability initially within the service areas on a progressive basis may be appropriate for the following reasons:

• Some service areas may have relatively higher levels of business subscribers and so the benefits to customers may be higher in such areas than in others.
• Some service areas may have more modern network infrastructure resulting in lower system set-up costs to operators than in other areas.
• The early experience gained may be helpful in quicker and smoother implementation in the remaining service areas and eventually at the national level. Any technical and procedural hitches may be removed before proceeding for implementation in the remaining service areas.
• The overwhelming proportion of porting activity may be expected to occur when customers change to another service provider within the service area, rather than when they move to live or work for extended periods in another service area.

Timing the introduction of number portability
India's teledensity for fixed and mobile services combined is currently more than 9 per cent.

Although, some might suggest the introduction of number portability in a more mature market, there are countries like the Netherlands and Pakistan that have initiated the process at a time when teledensity was below 10 per cent. Therefore, it is possible to start discussing the implementation of number portability, even though the market is not yet mature or saturated. By the time number portability will be implemented, the market will also expand, and at that time, number portability will add to the benefits of competition.