The game of poaching has already started, but hasn’t kicked off at its fullest yet – when it comes to grabbing maximum number of telecom subscribers from the opposite camp.
This can be gauged from the fact that only 5 million subscribers (as per COAI), from over 770 million total subscribers in India, have opted to ditch their current mobile carrier. During Feb-end, this subscriber count stood at 3.83 million users, as per TRAI data.
I am not sure how many of you readers have grudges against Vodafone’s network, but certainly the India unit of this UK-based company has so far gained maximum number of subscribers, post nation-wide MNP rollout. On a net basis, Vodafone has succeeded in attracting 192761 subscribers from other network providers.
Well, how many of you feel that the new series of zoo-zoo ads during the ICC World Cup might have come in a bit handy in poaching new subscribers? I am not sure though, as most of those ads were directed at promoting 3G awareness.
Moreover, Vodafone has been leading the charge amongst other telcos ever since Mobile Number Portability (MNP) has been rolled out. You can read an interesting survey report on it over here.
Hello! Wait a bit; don’t yet jump into conclusion that it could be Airtel that be the next biggest gainer from MNP-mania. It is Idea Cellular which grabs top honors for being second largest net gainer from MNP to the extent of 150789 users.
In fact, it could be Idea’s vigorous spending on “No Idea? Get Idea!” campaign (that was launched even before the MNP was actually rolled-out) that has yielded positive results just-in-time and gain foothold in new metro circles.
But, here’s a bit of a shocker! What happens to the country’s Top 2 cellular companies? Both Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications have lagged big-time in the race of MNP. If this is something of an alarm bell for you, it indicates that either the network quality or the service provided by these two companies needs some sort of pep-up.
While Bharti has still gained a net of 148215 customers, Reliance has emerged as a net loser to the extent of 306417 customers. And, one can simply say that, Reliance’s loss has been translated into Vodafone and Idea’s gain. In MNP, it is always a balancing act – one’s loss is other’s gain!
So, which network provider’s service are you using?
PS.: You may also like to read our article on Top 7 Reasons to go for MNP.