Mobile Number Portability - 2011

The first-ever opinion poll on MNP was conducted across 8 major cities(Delhi, Lucknow, Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad), covering both men and women(4564 subscribers) older than 18 years, between DEC 15,2010 and JAN 10,2011.

Highlights Of The Survey:

• a significant number of subscribers are dissatisfied with their service providers – More than one out of six mobile phone subscribers (17.6%) want to switch over to another telecom company. Given India’s mobile subscriber base of more than 700 million, it could mean that up to 120 million people want to switch.
• Airtel(31.9%) and Vodafone Essar(19.6%) will gain the most – One out of three consumers who are considering switching want to sign up with Airtel, and one out of five who want to change will go to Vodafone Essar. Followed by others(13.7%), Idea Cellular(9.7%) and Aircel(8.5%).
• BSNL GSM, Reliance CDMA, Reliance GSM & Tata Indicom will be the losers in terms of subscriber base.
• The reason to port is equally shared between ‘dissatisfied with the service(49.1%)’ and ‘want to change just for the heck of it(50.9%)’.
• women make more loyal subscribers — 14.3% want to change compared to 18.8% men.
• most dissatisfied customers were found in Hyderabad(37.3%), followed by Delhi(23%) and Ahmedabad(19.6%)
• older customers(41-50 yrs : 18.7%) are more demanding subscribers whereas housewives(13.6%) constitute the ‘least demanding’ lot.
• Post-paid(19.3%) customers are more dissatisfied than the pre-paid(17.4%) ones

Note#1 : figures indicate the percentage of respondents choosing a particular option.
Note#2 : Interviews were carried out using a fully structured questionnaire and the results were collated using appropriate statistical tools.
Source : HT-MARS SURVEY

Halelujah! MNP almost here

India's telecom regulator said today (yea,again) that mobile number portability (MNP) will be implemented nationwide from October 31 (as announced earlier) ruling out any further delay (again).For those who haven't heard MNP is a service that allows a mobile user to change his operator while retaining his number - for just Rs.19.

"There will be no further delay in the implementation of MNP," Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman J S Sarma said. The Department of Telecom (DoT) said the operators must ensure that all inter-operator tests for porting the numbers from one service provider to another are completed before September 1, 2010.

The Dot made it clear to all telecoms operators that in case they fail to implement MNP as per the scheduled deadline, they will be barred from launching any new commercial services from September 1.

"It has been decided that permission to launch commercial service in any area with effect from September 1, 2010 shall be given to only those licensee(s) who are MNP compliant," said a DoT note.

State-owned telcos Bharat Sanchar Nagar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited have said they are ready with the infrastructure to implement the MNP service.

The earlier June 30 deadline for the implementation of MNP was deferred as the operators were not ready with the infrastructure to provide the service.

The MNP was to be implemented by December 31, 2009 in all the metro cities as well as in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The deadline was then changed to March 31, 2010 and thereafter to June 30, 2010.

And a Happy Independence Day to all Indians out there!