Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Pan-India Mobile Number Portability by year end?

It seems that Mobile number Portability (MNP) has become a part of the Great Indian Tamasha and the latest news from the block is a fitting example of it. In an event organized by BSNL, the telecom minister Mr. A Raja has said that MNP would be launched in a phased manner, beginning November 2010. Haryana has the honor of the being the “chosen-one” for the first implementation. The first phase of implementation will cover 11 circles and is expected to be completed by Dec 20,2010.

Department of Telecommunications (DOT)  has not released any roadmap suggesting the manner in which this phased rollout will take place. But there are indications which suggest that small states with comparatively small mobile subscriber base may get the initial preference. Some telecom companies will certainly hope so, as it would mean less churning of subscribers.

This raises a very important question: How long will it be before other states that have substantial subscriber base get the implementation? The phased roll out of MNP was always on the cards, given the complexity of the process involved. But a definite time period within which the entire process is expected to be completed is still missing. Or are we seeking too much of professionalism from the DOT?

Mobile Number Portability

Some analysts believe that MNP will hurt India’s large telecom operators more than the smaller ones and newcomers. It could potentially spark off another tariff war which will be disastrous for the health of these companies. Given such a scenario, Network, Value added services, and customer- service will become the key differentiators. Although good from the customers point of view, it would mean some serious transformation for the Telecom operator. This might be one of the reasons for the so called unpreparedness of our Mobile operators.

Unpreparedness and MNP have now become synonymous of each other thanks to the long history of delays associated with it. And it seems that we have not learnt from our mistakes. Without a definite time period of completion it is highly possible that we will continue playing in the circle.What do you think?

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Categories: Mobile, News
Tags: a raja, BSNL, Department of Telecommunications, dot, Features, Haryana, mnp, mobile number portability, tariff war, telecom operators

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