India Business Blog | Funding & Telecom Trends | » Mobile number portability

Do Not Reject MNP Port-out requests: TRAI orders Telecom Operators

Arun Prabhudesai — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 10:53:29 +0000

TRAI has taken a serious cognizance to the fact that very high number of MNP port-out requests are being rejected by Telecom Operators in India. In interest of mobile consumers TRAI has now come out with a official directive to not reject a porting request under any circumstances except as mentioned in section 12 of the Mobile Number regulations bill 2009.

TRAI has also directed that all Operators should inform concerned officials in next 48 hours and submit a compliance report to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

TRAI has asked mobile operators that the donor operator should not reject any MNP requests on the grounds that they have received MNP porting cancellation request from a Subscriber through SMS, voice calls and in written form.

The reason for this is – TRAI is of the opinion that when a subscriber makes a request, the donor operator pressurizes the subscriber to withdraw the same by incentivizing him or offering goodies to stay on. This is against the MNP guidelines given by TRAI.

Such cases are especially true when a post-paid subscriber tries to move out from one operator to other as they offer much higher ARPU’s than pre-paid customers.

High percentage of rejection rates for MNP requests have been a perpetual problem – Few months back TRAI had come out with yet another directive to stop Operators from rejecting these request for very minor and flimsy reasons. Something like, if a user has an outstanding of just 50 paise, the porting request was rejected.

Overall, it is definitely a good step – this will ensure that operators don’t pressurize subscribers into staying with them!

Mobile Number Portability vs. Savings Account Portability vs. Health Insurance Portability!

Viral Dholakia — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:46:53 +0000

It seems all of a sudden the government has taken frenzy of the ‘portability’ facility. Almost within a year, it has shown intention of bringing portability in telecom, banking and insurance sector.

While mobile number portability, or MNP, was rolled out as early as January 20, health insurance came into being during October 2011. And, now, if reports are to be believed, India is all set to fire-up competition in the banking sector as well, by introducing savings account number portability on certain technology-related issues being resolved.

Type of Service	Mobile Number Portability	Savings Account Portability	Health Insurance Portability
Launch	January 2011	Not yet launched	October 2011
Sector Regulator	TRAI	Could be RBI	IRDA
How it works?	Retain your mobile number & change your telecom service provider	Retain your Savings bank account number & change your banker	Switch to a different health insurer with benefits from previous insurer being carried forward
Benefits	To avail better customer services and products from other telecom operators	To avail of higher interest rates and better services from other bankers	To avail better terms and conditions, pre-existing disease clauses & claim bonuses

However, if initial statistical data on MNP is anything to go by, portability has not been able to pin down erring service providers across the spectrum. The facility has proved to be quite cumbersome and time-consuming process, especially, in case of telecom industry, where applications are rejected on several grounds.

Furthermore, portability in the savings bank account could prove to be even more hassle some than the telecom sector – as the banks need to upgrade their technology, tweak its Core Banking System (CBS) and synchronize multiple digit format account numbers of varying banking institutions.

On the other hand, mobile number is a life-line of Indian telecom subscribers, which is designed to be disseminated to the subscriber’s friends and family to stay in touch with them. Thus, the importance of retaining the same mobile phone number while changing the telecom operator can not be equated with that of changing one’s bank account number (which is usually not spelled out in public).

Having said that, portability in the health insurance is much beneficial to the consumers as it promotes more competition amongst the insurance companies, and encourages customer-oriented services as well as innovative product offerings.

I think MNP and HIP are both very important, however, SAP may not be of much help to consumers, what do you think?

Savings Bank Account Number Portability coming soon !

Viral Dholakia — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:12:11 +0000

Implementing portability scheme is any form of service is the best way to ensure that the customer remains the king. While mobile number portability empowered telecom subscribers to ditch their erring operators; health insurance portability allowed customers to switch between, their life and non-life insurance, service providers.

More than serving its cause of allowing customers to switch between agencies, MNP has succeeded in creating policy awareness amongst them, and fear within service providers that they are not the dictators of the trade.

Furthermore, the government may now introduce portability in the banking space too. Yes, we may soon be allowed to move our savings bank accounts from one bank to another with the same number, which is likely to force banks (especially PSU banks) to improve their service levels.

Financial services secretary D K Mittal was quoted as, “We want to do it (savings account number portability). Right now there are some technical problems, we have identified them. We will overcome them soon.”

Moreover, this move comes at an opportune time when the RBI has deregulated the savings bank deposit rates. Post-deregulation, while smaller lenders led by Yes Bank has raised the savings deposit rates to 7%; leading banks such as HDFC Bank and SBI have shown muted response in terms of passing on hikes for their savings deposits.

Thus, once porting is allowed in the banking industry, the equation for larger banks could turn overhead – as the rate differential is too high to ignore between smaller and bigger banks, at this juncture. Take, for instance, for SBI – a 50 bps increase in the in the savings bank deposit rate will push up the state-owned bank’s costs by Rs.1500 crore.

The regulation is likely to be implemented once banks sort out their customer KYC norms, core banking solutions and other issues such as renumbering of savings accounts, most of which are preceded by branch codes of respective banks, and upgraded technology ready to adopt number portability.

This prospective norm will certainly save a lot of paper work involved in switching your bank account; and best of all you could retain your old account number without much hassles. Lastly, we need a centralised agency that would maintain all our KYC documents, so that we don’t need to comply with submissions with different banks repeatedly.

What say?

TRAI directs Telcos not to reject MNP requests on Flimsy grounds!

Arun Prabhudesai — Wed, 25 May 2011 13:53:04 +0000

Mobile Number Portability has not really set the stage on fire – Most telecom operators have come out and said that MNP has not affected their business much, however, it looks like there may a reason why the MNP numbers are not really high. Indian Telecom Operators have been rejecting Mobile Number Portability requests from subscribers on flimsy grounds !

Many users have complained to TRAI that their MNP requests are not being entertained by their service providers for reasons like subscriber is having a premium number or for having an outstanding amount on the bill, which sometimes is less than a rupee.

Taking note of user complaints, TRAI has come out with a directive for Telecom Operators which lays down clear basis, only on which a telecom operator is allowed to reject MNP requests. Other than that all other MNP requests will have to fulfilled.

Reasons why a Telecom Operator can reject MNP requests:

According to the Point number 7 in the directive, Telcos can reject MNP requests only under following circumstances:

Bundled handset offer with a written agreement having an exit clause
Corporate connection with a contractual agreement having an exit clause
Any contractual agreement with a retail customer against any service / premium number with an “exit clause”
The prepaid vanity numbers having an exit clause should come under the contractual obligation category of rejections provided that this aspect has been communicated to the customer prior to his porting and there was a contractual agreement with an exit clause.

Point number 8 of the directive also states that MNP requests cannot be rejected by Telecom Operator is the outstanding bill of customer is less than a rupee. TRAI has specially been severe on this particular point and has mentioned the following in Point no. 11

TRAI is of the opinion that rejection of porting request for small amounts such as Rs. 0.13, R. 0.70 or Rs 1.50 etc is against the spirit of regulations especially because the service provider has liberty to adjust the said outstanding amount against the next bill.

So, if you are thinking of changing your service providers, ensure that you are not under any of four contractual obligations given above.

Let us know what are the other reasons why Telecom Operator has rejected your porting request!

India crosses 800 Million Telecom Subscribers –Adds 19m mobile users in Jan!

Arun Prabhudesai — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 04:31:00 +0000

The Indian Telecom subscriber count has reached 806.13 Million by end of January 2011, thanks to unabated growth in mobile subscribers. India added 18.99 Million new Mobile subscribers in January to take the total mobile subscriber count to 771.18 Million.

According to the latest report released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), India has 538.38 million Urban Subscribers while 267.74 million Rural subscribers. The mobile growth in rural areas is higher at 3.07% as compared to urban which was about 2.06% in January. The share of Urban Subscriber
has declined to 66.79% from 67% where as share of Rural Subscribers has increased from 33% to 33.21%. With this, the overall Tele-density in India reaches 67.67 percent.

Telecom Subscription Data Highlights as on 31st Jan 2011

Interestingly, according to the new VLR data released by TRAI, out of total 771.18 Million mobile subscribers, 548.66 Million were active subscribers. So roughly about 71 percent of all the connections sold are being actively used. It is also interesting to note that Bharti Airtel has maximum active subscribers (92.63%) closely followed by Idea (90.34%). When it comes to region, Mumbai has lowest proportion of active subscribers (59.59%), while Jammu & Kashmir has the maximum (81.26%)!

I was also looking forward to see the churn in between telecom providers due to onset of Mobile Number Portability. It seems from the report that instead of actually being beneficial to smaller providers, it is exactly the opposite. They have lost more subscribers to their larger counter-parts than other way around. Infact, Videocon and HFCL are actually showing negative growth!

New Subscriber Additions in January 2011

Bharti maintained the lead adding 17.38 percent of all subscribers followed by Reliance (16.95) Vodafone (16.37) & Idea (13.22%). None of the newer Operators are able to make the mark with all of them put together adding less than 5% of all subscribers.

Telecom Operator Market Share

Bharti leads the pack with over one-fifth of Indian Telecom market under its fold, followed by closely placed Reliance (16.71%) and Vodafone (16.52%).

Broadband Subscriber growth in India

Broadband growth remains subdued – In the month of Jan total of 0.29 million broadband subscribers were added taking the total kitty to 11.21 million, thus showing a growth rate of 2.70%.

Buzz: Stock market crash, 2G scam, Health Insurance Portability, Inflation & Infra bonds!

Viral Dholakia — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 12:54:44 +0000

It has been hectic week for the investigators and government authorities what with new findings into scams and various regulatory reports coming out almost every other day, as the investigation into slew of corruption charges takes its route.

On the other hand, even stock markets have reacted negatively based on same old news of inflation, rising interest rates and corruption charges. However, the fact remains that food inflation has softened for the week ended January 29.

At a time when Nifty has sulked by 1000 points over last 3 months, it gives me a feeling that markets have corrected on the back of almost no news at all. Inflation is the only genuine macro-economic concern on the block right now. It just needed a reason to correct after last 2 years of scorching bull run. Here’s a list of Top 10 Stocks to pick in this falling markets.

Let’s have a check on some important news of this week:

2G Spectrum Scam – Got Smaller in Size!

Telecom regulator TRAI has come out with new recommendations on 2G spectrum pricing parameters. The excess 2G pricing is likely to steeply increase pay-outs of telecom service providers to the extent of Rs.16000 crore for the spectrum.

Further, the new regulatory norm undermines the findings of CAG report’s estimated losses on account of 2G spectrum allocation scam from Rs.1.76 lakh crore to Rs.1.24 lakh.

Health Insurance Portability – Going Beyond MNP!

In India, the term ‘Portability’ has hardly been used in the context of business or finance related products / services until now. At best, I can remember electronic gadgets like iPod which were referred as portable music players.

But, with introduction of the mobile number portability in India, we all know what it is about. In fact, now even policyholders can ditch their current health insurer and carry on the benefits with a better insurance company. What’s more? Now they can also carry benefits for pre-existing conditions. Health insurance portability will start from July 1.

ADAG Stocks Mauled by Investors!

Few weeks back, we had an article on how Anil Ambani does flip-flops which making statements and revealing partial truth to the investors. However, this time around it was investors who mauled the ADAG stocks on the back of certain rumors and corporate governance issues coming on fore.

On 9^th February, junior Ambani-led Reliance Infrastructure and other leading ADA Group stocks such as Reliance Communications, Reliance Capital and Reliance Mediaworks almost lost their 1/5^th of the market capitalization on Indian bourses.

And, what proceeded later? No points for guessing! The famous blame game…

Food Inflation Subsides – Oh! Really?

Finally, all the hoopla surrounding the infamous food inflation seems to have taken a toll on the pricing pressures. Yes, the wholesale food inflation has dropped substantially to 7-week low of 13.07% for the week ended Jan 29.

The Analyst community differs on their views on food inflation – while some of them have pointed out that this softening in prices is due to last year’s high statistical base effect when food inflation stood at high of 22%; the others suggest that prices of food articles have genuinely dropped as the supply-pressures have eased.

Infra Bonds – Race to Save upto Rs. 6158/-

It’s time for the financial year end and investors are lapping everything that comes up as tax-saving instruments. Further, from this fiscal, the government has allowed an additional deduction amount of Rs.20, 000 for investment in long-term infrastructure bonds under Section 80 CCF of the Income Tax Act.

In latest, IDFC has raised around Rs.765 crore through its second tranche of such infrastructure bond issue with a face value of Rs.5000 each. Another government-notified company to raise money through this route is L&T Infra which has come up with tax-saving bonds of 10-year tenor period of face value of Rs.1000 each.

So, have you invested in the tax-saving instruments? Or are you still waiting for the last minute March-end entry into them?

MNP Churn Numbers: Vodafone gains & BSNL falters!

Viral Dholakia — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 11:31:00 +0000

MNP has been implemented – now its time for a reality check for all the telecom service providers. Good boys will be rewarded and bad boys will be punished. And, for a change, the verdict would come from none other than the king (the customer!) himself.

The initial churn reports with respect to subscribers willing to avail of MNP to switch operators are fast emerging on the horizon. Though, most of such reports are limited to the Haryana circle where MNP was implemented way back in November 2010; analysts are of the opinion that the trend could be more or less similar across the country.

While the initial estimates suggest that hardly 140,000 subscribers, or 0.75%, opted for MNP to ditch their current mobile operators; a Swayam-numvar survey indicates that 58% of the subscribers are more than willing to log on to telcos that provide better services.

This IBN survey finding provides that Airtel was the most preferred operator with 26% respondents voting in its favor, followed closely by Vodafone (21%) and Idea (13%). Idea came at a distant 3^rd position despite having launched a big advertising campaign – “No Idea? Get Idea”

Network coverage (34%) and tariff rates (30%) emerged as the top 2 reasons as to why respondents want to avail of MNP while retaining their number. Well, that’s about survey findings. Let’s get back to ground reality.

The early set of numbers from Haryana provides that BSNL and Reliance Communications have emerged as biggest losers in the race of poaching subscribers led by MNP.

[Source: The Hindu]

While the state-owned operator has net lost 20,503 subscribers, the Anil Ambani-led Reliance group finds itself short of a net 13711 subscribers (GSM+CDMA).

In MNP, one’s loss is other’s gain! The subscriber loss recorded by BSNL, Reliance and Idea has proved to be a welcome business opportunity for Vodafone (20,748), Airtel (7,434) and even the late entrant Aircel which net gained by 9,329 subscribers.

For Tatas, the CDMA business has been a net loser. However, its GSM business – Tata Docomo – which has pioneered innovative marketing strategy in Indian telecom market – has been a great leveller for the group under its competitive DoCoMo brand.

What’s more? As the craze for poaching customers sizzle-up, telcos have also started to waive-off MNP port-in charges of Rs. 19 as an extra incentive to the new customers.

Letter to Mobile Network Operators!

Satyam Gambhir — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 12:42:10 +0000

Dear Network Provider,

Hope you are not low on BP after today’s / yesterday’s news. I woke up and saw a full page ad on front page of TOI, a leading network provider welcoming me to join them. HT had another giant ad of another network provider and so had Mint, Business Standard etc.

I took a long breath and smiled – as I remember you considering me as your soul mate for the rest of my life. You always thought that I am never going to part with you no matter how bad services you provide.

Those ten digits which you provided became a forced identity over time. I never thought it will get stuck to me along with your crap services forever. You always thought no matter whatever you do, it will not be easy for me to change my identity.

Not anymore! Rupees 19 – Is all it is going to take for me to find a new provider. A new partner, who can help me retain my identity and will also provide better services, a better network. I feel free now.

This is not to let you know that I am leaving you. Thanks to the government regulations which have now given the power in my hands to decide upon our relation. However, I just want to convey; you will now have to compete with best of companies to retain customers and gain more.

Are you ready?

One in every six Indians needs to change their provider, imagine how many aren’t happy with you (source)! Given India’s mobile subscriber base of more than 700 million, it could mean that up to 120 million people want to switch. There are many, who just want to switch their provider just for the heck of it.

I can understand you are busy welcoming new subscribers just like any other network provider, but don’t forget the existing ones!!

Even after hours of irritation at the customer care, I have tried to convince myself about not having a new provider for the sake of hanging on to the same number. Not anymore.

This is probably the last time when I am telling you this. One more mistake when it is least expected; is going to cost you huge.

With Love

Your beloved customer

Mobile Number Portability: Top 7 Reasons to ditch your Mobile operator!

Viral Dholakia — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 07:56:31 +0000

Pinch! Ouch! Oh yes, the much awaited Mobile Number Portability (MNP) is finally here after a series of regulatory delays. But, reports provide that there could be a very low churn rate in terms of subscribers looking to ditch their current telecom service providers.

Not surprisingly, a couple of telcos are already trying hard, through frantic marketing moves, to woo new customers – or should I say poaching from other competing operators? Idea Cellular’ s ‘No Idea? Get Idea’ commercial and Vodafone Essar’s ad campaign ‘Everybody’s welcome’ are already making waves in the telecom circles. Even Tata Docomo [one of trak.in advertisers] are going all out with online campaigns (see the ad in the header)

At this juncture, it does make sense to discuss a few reasons which might prompt you to switch between service providers without changing your number. Before that, I would like to point out that Vodafone is the best operator to be with if you’re not satisfied with your current operator. Well, that’s just my opinion and not any of those survey findings!

Network Coverage – It should follow you!

This reminds me of the innovative Hutch Dog ad campaign which just follows you everywhere. So, network coverage should certainly be on your top priority list to determine your decision as to whether you should stick with your current operator or not.

At times, it could be possible that the network of a particular telecom operator X is just fine. But, since your office or home is situated in interior corner of the building, the coverage can not reach you. In such a case, you are left with no other option but to bid ‘good-bye’ to your current service provider irrespective of its service quality.

However, before you ditch your current mobile operator; do ensure that airwaves of the service provider with whom you’re looking to convert into does reach you.

Quality of Service – They should understand you!

Once you’re able to access network coverage, quality of the service provided by the Telco is of utmost importance. It service aspect includes state-of-the-art service centre with advanced customer care department designed to provide superior customer management services.

While the tele-density is growing at a rapid pace, it becomes significant to determine whether the service provider has ample call centers to deal with customer complaints and resolve their problems.

Tariff Charges – It should be enviable!

No points for guessing what the fuss was all about in the telecom industry for last couple of years. Yes, it was regarding ultra-competitive tariff rates. Each telecom operator was trying to pip other in terms of introducing 1 second plan to ½ second plan and even fraction-of-a-second plan.

Needless to say, tariff plans offered by your current mobile operator should be comparable to the ones prevailing in the market, if not lower. The days of monopoly in the wireless segment are way behind us. Make every rupee count. However, if the difference in tariff structure is negligible, better stick with enhanced value-added service being provided by your operator.

Value added Products – More than a helping hand!

Mobile value added services are innovative set of mobile applications serving beyond basic voice and messaging services. These include high-end services such as entertainment (chats, video downloads, ring-back tones), gaming, multimedia content delivery and conferencing services to name a few.

Internet through GPRS / EDGE is the latest craze among youngsters who love to dabble on social networking sites to interact with their online friends and colleagues. If you’re looking to axe your current operator and shift to some cost-effective new entrant in the industry, be sure that they provide good user-experience for such premium value-added services.

Friends and Family – Always remain in touch!

Yes, almost every operator has some package or scheme revolving around economical calls routed to the number of your near and dear ones. Most telcos provide facility of calling at cheaper rates on particular set of mobile numbers on paying certain subscription charges.

Other things remaining constant, you can also compare between such packages offered by various telcos; as these are the numbers you are most likely to frequently dial to stay in touch with your family and friends. Mind it; it can save a substantial chunk of your bucks.

3G Services – Speed does matter!

Most of the larger telecom companies have spent big fortune on winning crucial next generation 3G airwaves. The new 3G technology will ensure fast-paced internet connection at broadband speed even while on a move.

Most of the telecom operators are gearing up for a quick roll-out of these premium services in February. Those geeky subscribers who are addicted to mobile internet might do well to wait a bit until the third generations services are up for the grabs. Once rolled-out, compare the service and make your decisive move.

Invitation? Go for it!

MNP is launched. Now wait for the tussle. Well, who knows? It might just benefit you with an extra bit of incentive in your kitty. We just saw how telcos fought between themselves and brought down tariff structures at depressingly low levels. Ultimately, it benefited none other than you and me.

You never know if these telcos have more to offer us as a last leg of fight to poach high-end subscribers from each other. Personally, I use Vodafone and am quite satisfied with the overall service. So, to me, MNP is of little significance from the point of view of ditching my operator.

So guys, just dump your current service provider. But, do ensure that the operator actually deserves a punch. Or else, you will eventually end up in wrong hands!