Mobile telephone subscribers would have to wait a little longer to change their service provider without changing their numbers.

The introduction of mobile number portability (MNP) across the country would be delayed by about two to three months, as some of the operators are not ready, said a senior official of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

We have had discussions with some of the operators, including BSNL and MTNL, which suggests we would miss the December deadline, he said.

In a related development, the department of telecommunications (DoT) has convened a meeting of all telecom service providers, Syniverse Technologies and MNP Interconnection Telecom Solution India on Thursday to review the subject.

Syniverse and MNP Interconnection are the two MNP operators selected to implement the service in India. At the Thursday meeting, all service providers and the MNP operators to give an update on their readiness for providing MNP.

MNP service was to be introduced by December 31 in the metros and by March 2010 in the rest of the country. Mobile subscribers need to pay a maximum of just Rs 19 for availing the service. The process is to take four days.

MNP is expected to help expand competition between the service providers, besides acting as a catalyst to improve their quality of service. Industry sources said, a fourth of mobile users would like to shift to a new service provider.