About 3.8 million requests had been received for mobile number portability (MNP) by the end of February since the service was launched nationally on January 20.
MNP, which allows subscribers to change their service provider while retaining their number, was first introduced in the Haryana circle on November 25 last year. According to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), around 320,000 requests came from Haryana since the service was launched there.
Since the nationwide launch, the Gujarat circle has received maximum requests with 365,000, followed by Karnataka with 318,000 and Rajasthan with 314,000 requests, Trai said in a statement. But requests from restive Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast were much less.
While there were only 1,291 requests from Jammu and Kashmir, the number was 1,863 from the Northeast.
In another development, Trai has received maximum number of complaints — 3,571 in the last three years from the customers of Bharti Airtel on account of billing and other tariff-related issues.
In an official statement, from 2008-09 to 2010-11 (up to December 2010), maximum complaints were against Bharti Airtel, followed by 2,151 against Reliance Communications and 1,896 against Vodafone Essar.
In a statement, Bharti airtel said, “Every customer complaint is important to us and we do address each of these at a customer and systemic level. The number of complaints referred here is mere .0025 per cent of our active customer base. There is in fact a declining trend in the number of complaints over the period of time vis-a-vis growth of subscriber base.”
Trai has been receiving complaints against telecom service providers with respect to various problems, including billing, metering and tariff-related issues, minister of state for communication and IT, Sachin Pilot, said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
Trai has forwarded these com pl-aints to the concerned service providers for necessary action. The regulator has also issued a consultation paper seeking views from all concerned stakeholders to improve the effectiveness of the grievance redressal system and to protect the interest of consumers.
