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As per TRAI's new rule effective from July 1, 2024, a person who buys a new SIM to replace their old damaged, misplaced, or stolen SIM will have to wait for 7 days before he or she gets to port that number. Once the 7-day waiting period is over, they will be free to port.
This is part of the Draft Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability (Ninth Amendment) Regulations, 2023 and is enforced to thwart SIM porting fraud, reportedly prevalent in the country. This is said to happen while one swaps or replaces their SIM, but the exact modus operandi of the fraudsters isn't known though.
For safe measure, TRAI has forbidden the telecom companies from sharing "unique porting code" to their new customers. This code is required to start a porting process. So in its absence, the SIM user can't port.
The 7-day period gives the new SIM buyers ample time to activate the SIM without falling victim to the aforesaid SIM fraud.
Needless to say, those who have bought a brand new SIM (not as a replacement for their old physical SIM) can go about porting the mobile number without waiting for 7 days. The only rule they have to follow is that once ported, they can do it after 90 days only.