NEW DELHI: Consumers will soon be able to retain their cellphone numbers when they relocate to any part of the country, even if they change operators, after the government came one step closer to clearing the ‘one nation, one number’ plan aimed at simplifying mobile telephony for all.Telecom Commission, the highest decision-making body in the telecom department, on Friday gave in-principle approval to full mobile number portability (MNP), or the facility to allow a mobile user to keep the same mobile number and weed out the hassle of buying another mobile connection on moving to another service area.India is divided into 22 such telecom service areas, also called circles, with most of them reflecting a state, but some states are divided. For example, UP is divided into UP (East) and UP (West).At present, this facility is limited to within the same service area, which means that for Rs 19, a customer in the Delhi service area can change his service provider from Airtel to Idea or Vodafone, without having to change his number.If this subscriber moves to another circle, for instance Mumbai, he needs to acquire a separate Mumbai mobile number, else pay roaming charges, which are higher than the average call tariff. With full MNP, the Airtel Delhi customer can keep the same number but choose Vodafone and not pay the roaming charges. The fees for this is yet to be decided. Customers though need to wait for a little longer to avail this service since the Commission has only approved the plan ‘inprinciple.’The telecom department will now approach the sector regulator for certain clarifications, which is expected to be provided within 60 days. The move is especially critical for the millions of mobile phone users – urban and rural -- who have to change cities and states for jobs and businesses and have to purchase new numbers in the process. Operators though believe this move would benefit a very small number of users and also lead to some loss of revenue from roaming charges.“While broadly we’re in agreement, details on performance bank guarantees and other charges, (changes to licenses of) two operators, whether these need changes or not, these points are sought to be clarified by Trai (The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India),” a senior telecom department official said.Currently, Syniverse Technologies and MNP Interconnection Telecom Solutions implement the limited MNP services. According to sources, the regulator had told DoT that implementation of nationwide MNP will require changes to the existing licences issued to Syniverse and MNP Interconnection.Trai had also proposed to raise the performance bank guarantees which Syniverse and MNP Interconnection submit to the government as their ambit of work will expand with full portability. It had also suggested a 25% cut in testing related fees which is paid by carriers and MNP providers to DoT. Internally, DoT did not approve of these proposals.A final notification will be issued as soon as the clarifications from the regulator come in, the official added. “About 1-2% of India's population will think of relocation, so we believe that the whole matter needs to be looked at in the context of cost benefit for the customers,” said Rajan Mathews, director general, Cellular Operators Association of India, the GSM lobby body.“We should be looking at nationwide licensing rather than circle wise licensing”. India’s telecom regulator had recommended back in September 2013 that operators must offer nationwide number portability or put into effect ‘one nation, one number’ within six months. MNP was first introduced in India in January 2011 and till May this year, more than 100 million customers had requested to move to a new service provider, Trai said recently.Trai data revealed that till Marchend, over 117 million porting requests were made. Penalties amounting to about Rs 8 crore have been levied on carriers for wrongfully rejecting porting requests or delaying activation after porting.“This will help certain sections of consumers – few that are very mobile – or otherwise large corporate users that will be able to negotiate harder for bulk numbers for their businesses,” said Mahesh Uppal, director at Com First (India) Ltd. “Migrant labour would welcome the end to hassles that come with verification each time they move because they often don’t have a permanent residence or other identification etc.”The Telecom Commission also cleared a comprehensive plan for strengthening of telecom connectivity in North East region and the project of government user network (GUN) over the National Optical Fibre Network — under which government has plans to provide WiFi services at panchayat levels.Both will require a final nod from the Cabinet. On creating broadband network at the panchayat level, for taking internet to the hinterland, a senior official said that a revised strategy has been put in place where, by March 2015, 50,000 village panchayats will be connected and by March 2016, the connectivity will be extended to 1 lakh village panchayats.