The world's third largest telecom services provider, Bharti Airtel (Airtel), on Thursday said the company is fully ready to launch National Mobile Number Portability (MNP).

The company has also introduced many firsts including faster processing of porting requests, free incoming on roaming, balance transfers, and carry forward options. With this, mobile customers spread across the country can now easily shift between states without having to change their mobile number, the company said in a statement.

It said, customers on Airtel in India can enjoy special offers including requests for porting within Airtel’s network being processed within 24 hours and free incoming on roaming once they raise a number portability request until it is processed.

Airtel customers can also avail of the option of transferring their balance in prepaid or carrying forward their unbilled/ billed amount in the case of postpaid while porting their number to the new city, it said.

"With our complete readiness to launch National Mobile Number Portability, we aim to empower customers enabling them to retain this identity as they move across anywhere in the country. To facilitate a seamless transition we will also allow our customers to enjoy free incoming on roaming while their number portability request is being processed,” Ajai Puri, Director – Market Operations, Airtel, said.

The process for National MNP is the same as intra-city mobile number portability wherein customers have to just walk-in to an Airtel outlet and follow the MNP process as advised, apart from calling the customer care service or visiting its website for details, the company added.