Until recently, like a week ago I could never watch a youtube video on my IDEA EDGE connection, it was a really frustrating experience to not even be able to access your mail with bearable through puts, I wished I could just switch my operator and the only thing that kept me from doing that is I didn’t wanted to change my number, I didn’t even get my personal cards printed because I was not sure if I am going to stick with this number or not. This is the story of almost every another mobile user in India.
Now here comes a great news, Union Communications and IT Minister A Raja today said the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) was planning to start mobile number portability (MNP) in major cities of the country by August, and in the remaining cities by the end of this year. Bids had already been invited for providing the MNP switches. We have been hearing about MNP for quite some time now and have wrote earlier about it and is for sure going to be boon for the VAS players and is gonna be tougher for Mobile carriers to retain the customers with mediocre services and recently reported bad boy maneuvers.
With the advent of 3G and MNP, quality of service and data throughput are going to be the important factors determining user retainablity for the mobile carriers, especially in metros while it is going to be very low margin play in rural markets with cut-throat competition where call price and service availability are the only determining factors. While with only 30% penetration India’s mobile market is very attractive the lowest call rates make it very competitive. Though MNP is only going to make it more competitive for the existing mobile carriers it is definitely making it easier for the new players with huge cash reserves like Telenor to get a considerable share in the market, Reliance communications has been yearning to foray into the GSM markets and MNP implementation by august is a very good news for the company.
Rajiv adds: While the picture might look rosy lets not forget that TRAI has failed in successfully auctioning 3G three times over and given the impact that mobile number portability can create expect some tug of war between trai and the big bad operators. Also no one yet (including TRAI I believe) knows how MNP shall be implemented i.e. would there be a cost to the user for shifting from one operator to another? If yes how much would that be? Also as far as the early signs of the procedure to shift is concerned it a documentation oriented procedure which may take weeks so that again would dilute the impact of MNP. Also how often can one change the operator? Does the payment get carry forwarded or one needs to first clear dues with the existing operator?
All these are questions whose answers would have a serious impact on the value of MNP. Also bear in mind that MNP would impact post paid subscribers only.
If you ask me ideally I would like to change my operator by sending a simple sms and validating the same over IVR with a credit card number or any other verification. But Im not sure things would be as easy as that.
Pradeep, why the MNP is boon to VAS players ? Would you please elaborate more on this. Thanks
@Anis: Hey just check the link in the post linked to the text -> boon to vas players. There is an entire post on the same.
Thanks Rajiv. I missed the link. Ignorance is Bliss but now I think there is a need for more analysis on impact of MNP on VAS. Atleast, the analysis will give direction to establish VAS players and entrepreneurs, entering VAS, to formulate the VAS offerings so as to make full use of “threat of MNP to big bad operators”.
In regards with speed… all of the operaters at bad, still a long time to go till we get to see youtube uninterrupted on the mobile.
if 3G is not launched by the time MNP comes , i am for sure moving to BSNL from Vodafone and i hope they allow that
Hey Pradeep
why don’t you get the new Photon + service from tata Indicom. have purchased it & the speeds are wow !
they claim wireless Broadband . definitely worth a try. not too sure if your area is covered though. definitely worth a dekko..
have written a post on MNP, examining the impact on both the challengers and the market leaders..
http://punchlineexpert.blogspot.com/
Really, it’s a tedious task for DOT because the mostly problem would be created in Postpaid Connections. Feasibility to check all points such as Outstanding Amt, Unbilled Amt is very critical because if any postpaid subscriber choose other operator service, no credit amount should be reflected in customer’s a/c else it will be loss for company which will not be bearable.
lets just wait and watch bcoz dozen’s of citizen are still unaware about the facility provided to them …. so a huge amount of awareness program should be run and people should be made aware of mnp …….. at conclusion a lot better step taken by service provider and trai