Mobile Number Portability: Change Sim Without Changing Your Phone Number

Do you have issues with your mobile phone number because it is normally out of reach? Is the tariff package too steep for your budget? Are you changing residences and in need of a new telephone company? You would be misled if you thought that switching mobile service providers would require you to also switch your phone number. Keeping your current mobile phone number is no longer a hassle, as Mobile Number Portability (MNP) allows you to switch carriers while keeping your existing mobile phone number.

With MNP, you can change carriers without giving up your current phone number. It's important to remember that you need to have a working connection for at least 90 days and no outstanding payments before you can begin this process. Below, we've outlined the steps required to successfully transfer your mobile number to a new operator.

Steps to change your service provider without changing your phone number

1. The first step is to generate the UPC at the point of sale of the recipient operator. You need to text the word ‘PORT’ (case-insensitive) followed by a space, and the ten-digit mobile number that is to be ported to 1900. The UPC will be received through SMS on the mobile phone of the subscriber.

2. Mention the valid UPC on the Customer Acquisition Form (CAF) and Porting Form of your preferred carrier. You can pick up your new SIM card from the service provider at any customer service center or Point of Sale after submitting the required payment and Know Your Customer (KYC) documents. When your porting request has been successfully submitted, your MNP service provider will send you a message letting you know that your request has been received and that you have 24 hours to cancel the port.

3. Within a Licensed Service Area (LSA) porting (for example, within the Gujarat LSA), the process takes 3 business days. It takes 5 business days to transfer your number from one LSA to another (say, from Delhi to Mumbai). In the event that a business number needs to be ported, the process takes 5 business days. Lastly, porting time in Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, and the North East licensed service areas shall be up to 15 working days.

4. The porting will take place overnight, and you will experience a temporary loss of service for no more than four hours, but you will receive an SMS message informing you of the exact time and date. Fater that, simply replace your SIM card with the new one and restart your phone. Your new service provider's network will accept calls from your mobile number once verification is complete.

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