One thing which every investor knows about India is that the reforms here takes place at a crawling pace no matter how much freedom the government gives to private players. So it won’t be a surprise if we tell you that MNP is set to be delayed again beyond the scheduled time in Jan-2010 only this time the real culprit are Telco’s.
It seems now Mobile Number Portability is getting delayed not because of bureaucratic hurdles but due to lack of execution on Telco’s part to implement MNP. Most of the major telecom operators are yet to devise MNP implementation on their networks and thus could be looking at delay of more than 2 months as they also have to test their systems.So expect MNP to miss Jan deadline by few months to somewhere around March 2010.
To implement MNP, Telecom operators were to upgrade their networks to connect with MNP providers – Telcordia and Syniverse.Old operators like Airtel, BSNL(except Vodafone) seems to be caring less about MNP as it would only result in damages on their side although New networks already comply with MNP implementation.
MNP expected to be implemented from more than a year has been delayed on several counts in past along with 3G.Earlier there was apprehensions regarding the pricing of MNP but that too was dealt with sweetening offer from TRAI to provide MNP services at just Rs. 19 to telecom subscribers.
Subscribers will have to wait longer even though the recent price discovery in MNP has increased the bracket of subscribers waiting to opt for the service. So we can only say don’t expect a fixed timeline for MNP or even 3G cos it could be subjected to many delays as already happened in past.
