Some Important notes on MNP - Mobile Number Portability

Hello Friends !!!

It hasn't been long since our Prime Minister Shri Manmohan Singh announced MNP. The main question still remains, why should someone change to a different operator? One (big) reason is that before MNP was actually announced, switching to another operator involved a procedure of submitting documents and in the end when you finally got your number, you had to inform family, friends and colleagues about the change.

All that will now change with the introduction of MNP. Here is a list of Frequently Asked Questions regarding Mobile Number Portability.

What is Mobile Number Portability?
If you’ve not been updated about this, this service lets you stick to your current number and switch to another operator. For instance, if you are not happy with your current service provider, or if you’re getting a better tariff plan that suits your requirement with another, you can change to that particular provider without having to give up your existing number.

Is it possible to change service operators between circles? For E.g. Move to another city and change to a different operatorWell you can’t do this, at least for now. The Department of Telecom (DoT) has allotted two zones so that all number porting requests don’t overload a single Mobile Clearing House.

Zone I consists of Delhi, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Eastern and Western Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir Licensed Service Areas (LSA).

Zone II includes Kolkata, Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, North East and Orissa LSAs

Because of the configuration of individual Telecom circles, porting can happen between Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh; Bihar & Jharkhand; Rest of West Bengal & Andaman and Nicobar; within the states of the North East except Assam. Apart from these states, you cannot move between any other circle or zone. So if you want to switch operators between Mumbai and Delhi that's not going to happen just yet.

Yours Truly
h. i. sarvaiya

Sandhan-A step towards bridging the gap...

Mr. Harbhadrasinh I. Sarvaiya

Asst. Prof & Head

KKSJ Maninagar Science College

Ahmedabad.

Gujarat University (Gujarat. India)

hisarvaiya@gmail.com

---------------------------

In a time when Information and Communication Technology is booming, the role of the teacher, the nature and context of learning, as well as the function and relative importance of course content are thus being challenged and redefined.

The Good news however is that Higher Education and Open and Distance Education, in particular is working hard towards keeping pace with this gale of change. Open and Distance Education across the country is adopting the use of various types of media and technologies to transfer ‘meaningful’ education to learners.

This paper highlights the initiation of a project –Sandhan, by the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education(OCHE), Gujarat, that aims to link up all the universities to create a ‘virtual classroom’ where any student studying at any university of the state can be part of a lecture delivered by some eminent teacher at one place. This effort has been made possible by using the facilities at Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Application and Geo-informatics- BISAG.

The need for a parallel education system in Gujarat arises out of an irony that is echoed by of most States, where the immobility of subject experts creates an impediment in reaching out to learners awaiting quality education in distant areas. To bridge the gap of the physical distance , projects like SANDHAN are attempting to create virtual classrooms where experts use a creative blend of teaching methodologies to deliver their content.

A phone-in system facilitates students to present their doubts to the concerned faculty in the studio. The virtual classroom is facilitated by a grant given to all colleges for the purchase of DTH and Television.

This paper deals with the pragmatic aspects of using Information and Communication Technology to aid students in filtering and interpreting the complex, pervasive informational content of their syllabus. This paper presents a scenario crafted to suggest the capabilities of advanced technologies for making distance learning environments more effective.

This paper also aims at sharing practical experiments done by Communication Subject Experts using a range of teaching methodologies like role plays, audio-visual clips, lectures, power point presentations, LIVE quiz and experiments to deliver their subject to the students located far and wide.

Experiments made by the Subject Experts in using teaching methodologies in Distance Learning will be shared with participants in through PowerPoint presentation and Audio-Video Clippings.

Poster Presentation: Convergence of ICT tools like satellite TV and Internet for Enhanced teaching-learning experience

• Objectives:

o To display how satellite TV (DTH) can revolutionize and enhance virtual classroom.

o To display how web 2.0 tools like SNS, e-Groups and chat applets can be effectively used for teaching as well as for evaluation and feedback.

o To display the convergence of ICT tools like DTH with web 2.0 tools like chat applet for virtual classroom.

o To enable the students of Gujarat having access to the educators of high caliber and so enhances their abilities to cope up with the rising competition for employment. This Programme will indirectly facilitate the learning and practical implementation of the computer learning by the various subject experts.

o It has been often observed that some experts from the teaching community shy away from the use of newer technology; but this kind of presentations will necessitate their learning and teaching through the computer.

• Core Content of Poster presentation:

o It will deal with the project of OCHE (Office of Commissioner, Higher Education) named SANDHAN. This project aims to link up all the universities, colleges and research institutions to create ‘virtual classroom’ where any student studying at any college in Gujarat can view lectures delivered by some eminent teachers from the studio of BISAG in Gandhinagar (Gujarat).

o It will share experience of using this technology and real time learning in virtual world.

o It aims at sharing success stories of teaching and learning in virtual environment – both by teachers and students. It indirectly provides an impetus to the subject experts too to increase their circumference of using various web 2.0 tools.

o It aims also to display the SWOT analysis of such projects.

o It will throw some light of limitations of using technology in countries like India with reference to the state of Gujarat.

o It would also discuss the e-feedback opportunity and the success ratio.