Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has been able to make the most from Mobile Number Portability (MNP) — a facility that enables subscribers to change their operator while retaining their telephone number — in Andhra Pradesh.
The public sector behemoth has been the top performer in the state, with most number of users porting to its services since the launch of the facility. It now sees itself poised to take on stiff competition from private sector telecom operators. At least this is what the top brass of BSNL wrote to the chief general managers (CGMs) of all its 26 telecom circles in the country.
“Andhra Pradesh telecom circle has been registering net gains after MNP... It is proved that BSNL circles can turn the tables on competition, provided each of our employees are involved,” a letter dispatched by BSNL headquarters in New Delhi to the CGMs on March 7, had said.
By March 17, within two months of the launch of MNP, BSNL had a net gain of 39,193 customers in Andhra. While 55,887 telecom subscribers shifted to BSNL, 16,714 of its customers migrated to other networks.
“The net gain of the second-best performer in the state stood at less than half of BSNL’s,” Rajeev Agarwal, who took charge as CGM in January, told Business Standard.
| WAY AHEAD Operator-wise net gains on account of Mobile Number Portability in Andhra (As on March 14) | |
| Operator | Net gain |
| Aircel | 3,515 |
| BSNL (GSM) | 35,306 |
| Idea Spice | -146 |
| Swan Telecom | -20 |
| Tata Teleservices (GSM) | 2,576 |
| Tata Tele (CDMA) | -15,683 |
| Vodafone | -16,578 |
| Reliance Comm (CDMA) | -18,995 |
| Shyam | 277 |
| Unitech Wireless | 1,851 |
| Airtel | 15,381 |
| Reliance Com (GSM) | -7,484 |
The next biggest gainer in the state was Airtel, which gained of 15,400 users in the two months.
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BSNL’s performance in Andhra stands out also because all of its other circles, except Orissa, have been posting net losses. Even in Orissa, the net gain has been just 2,084.
On the other hand, Punjab and Haryana circles saw the biggest net loss of subscribers on account of MNP. In Punjab, the number of subscribers who ported out stood at 50,650, compared to only 5,323 who ported in — a net loss of 45,327 subscribers. Similarly, in Haryana, 66,799 customers ported out while only 13,370 ported in — a net loss of 53,429 — as on March 17.
Across the country, following the launch of MNP on January 20, 459,804 of BSNL customers have ported out, while 171,582 have ported in, leading to an overall loss of 288,222 customers. This includes the loss of 157,009 subscribers in the North Zone, 78,072 in the West, 24,220 in the East and 28,722 customers in the South.
Interestingly, in the Andhra Pradesh circle, BSNL outperformed all the other private sector telecom operators in the state — Aircel, Idea, Swan, Tate Tele (GSM and CDMA), Vodafone, Reliance (GSM and CDMA), Shyam, Unitech and Airtel. Of the total 12 telecom companies operating in the state, six posted net MNP gains, while six — Tata Tele CDMA, Reliance (CDMA and GSM), Vodafone, Idea and Swan — registered net losses.
Tata Indicom Chief Operating Officer (Southeast Region) S Ramakrishna indicated that a large number of his company’s customers were moving to Tata DOCOMO network.
“We are happy to see that a large chunk of our customers ported from Tata Indicom to Tata DOCOMO. This is a win-win proposition for us, especially as it allows us to better utilise the CDMA network for higher-end data services,” he said.
However, all those who leaving Tata Indicom were not shifting to DOCOMO. In the past two months, the number of Tata Indicom customers porting out of the network stood at 15,683, while only 2,576 ported in to the DOCOMO network.
According to Agarwal, the prime mover of MNP initiative is the collective effort made by the 26,000 staff of the BSNL, who were mobilised across the circle for this purpose.
“Focusing on customer care made all the difference. We trained all our customer service staffers through virtual classrooms. I talked to all the 26,000-strong staff through video conferencing and briefed them on the way to proceed,” Agarwal said.
To improve the customer care, Agarwal launched an SMS initiative, under which a subscriber could send a message to 54141 if he faced any problem relating to network and signals.