Three days ahead of the launch of Mobile Number Portability, Aditya Birla group firm Idea Cellular on Monday started a helpline to guide over 700 million mobile users on various aspects of the service.
Losing subscribers for the fourth straight month, Reliance Jio witnessed 3.76 million users leave the telecom operator in October, data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) showed on Monday. Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel reversed three months of decline, and added 1.92 million users, indicating it has overcome the impact of the broad-based tariff hikes imposed by private sector telcos in July.
Rating agency Fitch Ratings has said mobile number portability (MNP) is unlikely to hit operators, considering the dominant pre-paid nature of the market and high churn rate, and opined that India will not behave too differently from rest of Asia on this matter.
Mobile subscribers from May 3 will be able to port their numbers anywhere in the country.
The government on Wednesday imposed a condition on telcos that only those, who are ready with Mobile Number Portability, would be allowed to start new operations, a move that may restrict or delay launch of new services, including 3G.
This is the second time the launch of MNP has been delayed. Earlier, it was scheduled to start from December 31 last year in metros, which was later extended to March 31 across the country.
Postpaid users, high spenders and business subscribers are more likely to switch their operator if Mobile Number Portability (MNP) is introduced in the country, while prepaid users may remain loyal to their existing operator, a study on Wednesday said.
A senior official from the department of telecommunications (DoT) confirmed that Telcordia has been given 'conditional clearance' by the ministry of home affairs and MNP will be launched on January 20.
Telcordia and Syniverse Technologies were selected by DoT to implement MNP across the country. India was divided into two zones for the implementation of MNP, a service that would allow a mobile user to retain his phone number while shifting to a new operator.
According to a study by analyst firm Angel Broking, once the MNP facility is operational, mobile operators' average revenues per user, the benchmark of a telecom operator's financial strength, would get adversely impacted by around 5 per cent. Telecom companies' margins would also drop by 100-150 basis points and even earnings per share estimates would be pruned by 9-21 per cent.
Even as it selected a franchisee to run its 3G telecom services in Delhi and Mumbai circles, state-run MTNL said it was unlikely to be able to implement mobile number portability by the government deadline of December 31, which is supposed to bind all players.
With over 600 million mobile subscribers set to get a choice to change their operators while retaining their numbers from Thursday by availing mobile mumber portability, service providers are using every trick in the marketing trade to retain their customers and woo new ones.
Recently, the department of telecom said the country is likely to launch mobile number portability services -- which allows users to switch operators without changing their phone numbers -- by June 30.
Idea, the country's sixth-largest mobile operator was the biggest gainer in the first eight days of mobile number portability (MNP) being launched across the country.
After continuously bleeding subscribers for nearly two years, state-owned telecom services provider BSNL added 2.9 million users in July when its private-sector rivals raised tariffs by nearly 20 per cent. With BSNL keeping tariffs unchanged, many subscribers using entry-level plans shifted from Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi), said analysts.
Delhi Police have arrested a 1994-batch Indian Administrative Service officer, posted in the internal security division of the home ministry. Ravi Inder Singh, a deputy secretary of the West Bengal cadre, was under surveillance for over a month by the intelligence agencies.
The MNP service was introduced on a pilot basis in Haryana on November 25, 2010 and later rolled out pan-India from January 20 this year.
The government, which has received flak for delaying the number portability process, said on Thursday that there is no delay in implementation of number portability.
Vice president and CEO Sanjay Kasturia talks about the initial trends in mobile number portability, launched all across India on January 20, and other issues in an interview with Mansi Taneja.
MNP allows a subscriber to change his or her service provider without changing the mobile number.
Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu's party secured a 'supermajority' in Parliament by winning over 60 seats in Sunday's crucial parliamentary election, seen as a litmus test for the pro-Beijing politician whose policies are being closely watched by both India and China amidst regional power dynamics.
The top court's remark came while setting aside an order of the Madras high court which directed the Tamil Nadu government to create the posts under the designation.
Star wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat's request to train in Kyrgyzstan and Poland respectively was approved by TOPS.
It is for the first time in the history of Independent India that not a single Muslim is part of the Union Cabinet.
The development marks a watershed moment in India's telecom history since fixed-line or landline connections formed the final segment where a State-owned operator was in the top spot.
One reason why mobile subscribers haven't shifted companies is that the service is uniformly bad. But now, with new players coming in, the picture could be different, says Sunil Jain.
The highest number of requests are in Karnataka (39.18 million) and Tamil Nadu (35.56 million).
While Reliance Jio added 3.65 million users in May, both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea continued to lose subscribers.
Currently, MNP is only available within a state/circle.
Telecom operator Vodafone has been the top gainer of customers through mobile number portability facility while Reliance Communications is the biggest loser.
Over the three-month period, Airtel's stock price has rallied from Rs 432 to Rs 540, while Vodafone Idea has risen from Rs 9.2 to Rs 11.8 per share.
Jio says it has completed mobile number portability testing and is certified MNP-compliant
RCom and Tata Teleservices are the top net losers of subscribers under mobile number portability (MNP) services.
To become the most favoured operator in the MNP stakes, Idea has worked hard to spruce up its network and quality of service.
As per the data reported by the service providers to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, by the end of February 2011, about 38.33 lakh (3.83 million) subscribers have submitted their requests to different service providers for porting (shifting) their mobile number.
Industry sources say, on an average around 200,000 porting requests were received from across the country.
Customers will have to pay a maximum of Rs 19 to an operator to change their network.
The nationwide implementation will increase churn of customers, shoot-up the customer acquisition and retention costs, and lower the average revenue per user as competitive tariff plans will have to be offered, the agency said in a note.
Mobile Number Portability (MNP) has crossed a landmark figure of 100 million with 11 per cent of the total mobile subscribers exercising this facility till date.
According to telcos and analysts, this is due to SIM consolidation happening after the minimum recharge plans were implemented by incumbents.
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