ts seems after 3G auction its Mobile Number Portability’s (MNP) turn to see a final date of roll out. TRAI has announced that MNP will be implemented in ‘category A’ circles from December and the rest of the country from March 20, 2010. But this implementation happens with some limitations.
Limitations to MNP
- Consumers allowed to switch operators only 90 days after a connection is activated
- Consumers allowed to change operators within their registered circle only (i.e. if you are within the Maharashtra circle you can’t shift to a Karnataka circle and so on)
This announcement of implementation comes after a year since im hearing about MNP and which was delayed earlier. The good part though is that the period of switching between one operator to another has been kept at a maximum of 4 days which seems reasonable barring regions like J&K, Assam and north east circles where the period is 12 days.
Charges of MNP
Trai had issued draft guidelines on MNP in July this year but there has been no information on the charges to shift one’s operator. There has been speculation though which has ranged around 300 rupees. Even now with the implementation announced in December there is no information of what it would cost the subscriber to shift from one operator to another. But one thing is for sure that subscribers will have to pay operators non-refundable porting charges for shifting their number.
Impact of MNP
We have discussed this both from the operators perspective wherein the churn is expected to increase and also from the VAS players perspective wherein they could benefit due to this churn and could get better revenue shares from operators for exclusive content that drives revenues.
PS: I shall be moderating the telecom panel on “Incumbents vs Entrants - The Roadmap Ahead!” at the Asian Telecom Seminar at SITM, Pune this Saturday. Should be interesting to know what operators think of MNP and 3G in that panel. Panelists include folks from Tata DOCOMO, S Tel, Virgin Mobile, Idea and British Telecom. If you are in Pune I look forward to seeing you at the panel.
I heard that only post-paid subscribers can switch operators once MNP is rolled-out. If so, it would be interesting to witness a considerable number of pre-paid subscribers shifting to post-paid plans in december.
hello,
when is number portability is going to start in Pune.
Please mention the date when it s going to start in Pune.