Many prepaid and postpaid telecom customers all over India are looking for a change of network. If one wishes to change their network however continue with the same number, then the best option they have is to opt for the Mobile Number Portability or MNP. Through MNP or porting as it is commonly called, you can retain your number as you move from one network to another. This is a great help to those people who have many business and personal contacts that are linked through their phone numbers. The MNP can be carried out in a few simple steps. You need to raise a porting request, obtain your Unique Porting Code or UPC, and share it with your new network provider so that the porting process can be completed. While you share your UPC with the new network provider you need to keep a check on your MNP status. Your MNP status is actually the status of your MNP request and how far your MNP process has progressed once your MNP code has been generated. Let us begin by listing the process for generating your MNP code.
- Send an SMS from the number that you want to port with the text “PORT<Space>Your 10 digit mobile number” to 1900.
- You will receive the MNP code through SMS from 1901. It is an alphanumeric code that is valid for 4 days since the code is received by you.
- To make sure that you can get the full benefit of these four days you should only generate the code once you have already contacted the new network provider and have been advised by them to generate the code.
The UPC or porting code gets generated only when the number meets the conditions specified by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, TRAI. According to TRAI guidelines, a number has to be on a network for at least 90 days before a porting request can be generated. It also requires all the outstanding bills to be cleared in case of a postpaid connection, and the number should not be specified by any court of law as non-portable. Once you have followed the above process and generated your UPC it is time for you to share it with the new provider. If you are porting to Airel from any other network, you can avail yourself a lot of facilities such as home delivery of the SIM card and doorstep KYC eliminating the need to visit the Airtel store at any point, although if you want you can visit the store to complete the process too.
If you want to check your MNP status you can visit the MNP status web portal, furnish your mobile number and porting code to check the status of your Porting request online. While porting to Airtel, you can keep a check on your MNP status by installing and logging into the Airtel Thanks App. Through the Airtel Thanks App, all the updates regarding your Airtel account will also be updated once your number has been ported to Airtel. You will also receive SMS alerts for the deactivation time from your old provider and reactivation time from your new provider, Airtel.