How to port your mobile number

Porting moves your mobile number from one licensed operator to another. The number stays identical, which is the entire point — every bank one-time password, UPI registration, government portal login and delivery notification tied to that number continues to work.

What changes is everything else about the connection. Your tariff plan does not carry over; you buy a plan from the new operator. Your balance on a prepaid connection does not carry over, and unused balance is generally lost, which is a good reason to run it down before porting rather than topping up. Any bundled subscriptions, data rollover or loyalty benefits from the old operator end.

Value-added services and any content subscriptions billed through the old operator stop, and those you want should be re-established with the new one. Caller tunes, packs and add-ons are operator-specific.

Your handset is unaffected unless it is locked to a network, which is unusual in India for handsets bought outright.

There is a short interruption at the moment of the switch, typically scheduled in a low-traffic window, during which the number is unreachable. Plan around it if you rely on the number for two-factor authentication at a specific time.

A distinction worth understanding is intra-circle versus inter-circle porting. Moving to another operator within the same licensed service area is the ordinary case. Porting to an operator in a different service area — for instance because you have permanently moved states — is also permitted, but it changes the home network of your number, and roaming and tariff treatment follow the new circle. It is a longer process and worth flagging to the new operator at the outset.

The donor operator can reject a porting request, but only on specified grounds. Knowing them tells you whether a refusal is legitimate or a retention tactic.

Outstanding dues on a postpaid connection are the most common valid ground. The bill has to be paid; a disputed bill is a complaint to be resolved rather than a reason the porting rules are suspended. Pay under protest and pursue the dispute if you need to move quickly.

Minimum tenure with the current operator. The number must have been active with them for a prescribed period — ninety days under the regulations — before a code will be issued. A recently ported number therefore cannot be ported again immediately.

A recent SIM replacement. A porting code will not be allocated where the SIM was swapped or replaced within a short window before the request. This is an anti-fraud rule introduced specifically to stop numbers being taken over by a fraudulent SIM swap and then immediately ported away to another operator, and it applies even when the swap was entirely legitimate — a lost handset, for instance. If you have just replaced a SIM, you wait.

Contractual or legal bars: a corporate connection where the subscription belongs to the employer rather than to you, a number that is subject to a court order or a request from a law enforcement agency, or a porting request already in progress.

Anything else is not a ground. 'Your documents are not in order' where they demonstrably are, an unexplained delay, or a refusal to send a code, are matters for a complaint. Retention calls are lawful; obstruction is not.

Before you request a code, also check that your identity and address documents match the connection's registered details, because the new operator runs fresh customer verification and a mismatch there will stall the port.

Clear any outstanding postpaid bill and run down a prepaid balance you do not want to lose. Confirm the connection has been active with your current operator for the minimum period.

Send an SMS from the number you want to port: the word PORT, a space, then your ten-digit mobile number, to 1900. The reply carries a Unique Porting Code with an expiry date.

Note the expiry. The code has a short validity — longer for subscribers in Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and the North East service areas — and it is the commonest reason a port has to be restarted.

Go to the operator you want to move to, in person or through their app where they support it, with the porting code, proof of identity and proof of address, and a passport photograph if asked. Corporate connections need an authorisation from the account holder.

Complete the customer acquisition form and the verification process, and collect the new SIM. You will be given a scheduled date and time for the switch.

Do not discard the old SIM until the switch has happened. The number continues to work on the old SIM right up to the changeover, and if the port fails you will need it.

Insert the new SIM at the scheduled time. There is a short outage, after which the number registers on the new network. Test an incoming call, an outgoing call, data and — importantly — a one-time password from a bank before you assume it is done.

Update anything that depends on the operator rather than the number: e-SIM profiles on secondary devices, any operator-specific app logins, and international roaming settings if you travel.

On a prepaid connection, the practical risk is the balance. Unused talk time and data are generally forfeited on porting, and the operator has no obligation to refund them. Spend down before you start.

On postpaid, the risk is the final bill. Porting does not close your account cleanly by itself — usage up to the switch is billed afterwards, and a final invoice arrives after you have left. Ignoring it because you are no longer a customer is how a small residual amount becomes a credit information entry.

Ask the outgoing operator explicitly whether there is a security deposit to be refunded, and how they will pay it once you are no longer their subscriber. Deposits on postpaid and on international roaming are frequently forgotten by the subscriber and rarely volunteered.

A corporate connection is subscribed by the employer, not by you. You cannot port it out on your own authority, and the number is the company's. If you want to keep a number you have used for years, the conversion from corporate to individual has to happen while you still work there.

Converting between prepaid and postpaid with the same operator is not porting and does not need a code — it is a plan change. People conflate the two and start an unnecessary port.

If you hold multiple numbers on one account, each is ported separately with its own code. There is no bulk port for a family or a small business account.

Telecom complaints follow a defined structure and skipping the steps is why so many go nowhere. The first tier is the operator's own customer care, which must give you a docket number. Record it — without a docket number there is nothing to escalate.

If customer care does not resolve it within the prescribed period, the second tier is the operator's appellate authority. Every licensed operator is required to have one, with published contact details, and it is a distinct office from customer care rather than a supervisor within it. This is the tier that is almost entirely unused, and it is the one with the authority to overturn a decision.

Only after the appellate authority has failed does the matter go outward. The regulator does not adjudicate individual billing disputes, but it does supervise the grievance machinery, publishes the quality-of-service and consumer protection obligations operators are held to, and its consumer information pages set out exactly what an operator must provide.

Separately, the government's public grievance portal accepts complaints against the department and its bodies, and the national consumer helpline handles telecom service complaints as consumer disputes. For a persistent billing dispute, the consumer commission route under consumer protection law is a genuine remedy with the power to award compensation.

For fraud rather than service failure — a SIM issued in your name without your knowledge, a number used for impersonation, or a stolen handset — the telecom fraud reporting facilities run by the department are the right route, and financial fraud goes to the cybercrime channel and the 1930 helpline instead.

Keep the record. Dates, docket numbers, the name of who you spoke to, screenshots of the SMS trail and copies of bills are what convert a plausible grievance into a decided one. Every tier above customer care works on documents rather than on recollection.