“No Idea? Get Idea.” That punchline of telecom service provider Idea Cellular seems to have clicked with users, making it the largest gainer in subscribers through mobile number portability (MNP).
After nearly a year of MNP, only three operators — Idea Cellular, Vodafone and BPL — have been net gainers in terms of subcribers. The rest of the telecom players, including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Tata Docomo and state-run PSUs BSNL and MTNL, have lost. The biggest loser is Reliance Communications, followed by the Tatas, despite both vying in the GSM as well as the CDMA space. The figures are based on number portability till the end of December 2011.
Idea has gained a net (number of subcribers who left compared to the number who entered) 19,80,000 users who shifted onto the company’s network from January 20-December, 2011. Vodafone is the second-largest gainer with 13,20,000 users in the same period, while the third slot is occupied by BPL, which operates only in the Mumbai circle, with a gain of 3,100 users.
The country’s largest mobile operator Bharti Airtel attracted 43,40,000 users to its network, but there was a port-out (the users who moved out of the network) of about 43,80,000 users, resulting in a net loss of about 41,000 users.
Reliance Communications lost about 4,80,000 users from its GSM segment and about 8,60,000 from its CDMA network. Tata Docomo lost 1,84,000 users and Tata CDMA lost about 8,00,000 users from its network.
MNP allows mobile subscribers to change their service providers while retaining their numbers and was launched nationwide on January 20, 2011.These are the initial estimates given by operators to telecom regulator Trai for the period of January 20-December 2011.
Till December 2011, a total of 22 million users used MNP. The total number of subcribers in November was 884.37 million, as figures for December are still not available.
Experts had already said that MNP won’t be a game changer, as the bulk of subscribers are pre-paid users. Besides, with a multi-SIM scenario, it is unlikely that users would shift to other network.
To avail the MNP service, a mobile user has to pay Rs 19 as porting fee. The user has to send a message to 1900, following which the user will get a unique porting code. With this code, the user has to fill a form in the outlet of the new service provider. The whole process is to be completed in seven days. Subsequently, users cannot avail MNP service again for a period of 90 days.
There have been various complaints received by the telecom regulator on MNP from users. On its part, Trai even also issued notices to some of the players for violation of MNP norms -- and is in the process of resolving rest of the issues.
