DoT sets eyes on inter-circle FNP

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has approached sector watchdog the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to prepare recommendations for the implementation of nationwide and inter-circle fixed number portability (FNP), Live Mint writes, citing an unnamed senior official familiar with the development. The move is part of the government’s ‘One Nation, One Number’ policy, which led to the introduction of nationwide inter-circle mobile number portability (MNP) in 2015. Previously, customers were restricted to porting their number to another provider within the same circle. According to the official, FNP on the same scale presents greater technical challenges than MNP and as such may take up to five years to implement. Once operational, the porting process itself is also expected to take longer, at between two and four days.