MNP is implemented in different ways across the globe.

The international and European

standard is for a customer wishing to port his/her number to contact the new provider
(Recipient) who will then arrange necessary process with the old provider (Donor). This is
also known as 'Recipient-Led' porting. The UK is the only country to not implement a
Recipient-Led system, where a customer wishing to port his/her number is required to
contact the Donor to obtain a Porting Authorisation Code (PAC) which he/she then has to
give to the Recipient. Once having received the PAC the Recipient continues the port
process by contacting the Donor. This form of porting is also known as 'Donor-Led' and
has been criticised by some industry analysts as being inefficient. It has also been
observed that it may act as a customer deterrent as well as allowing the Donor an
opportunity of 'winning-back' the customer. This might lead to distortion of competition,
especially in the markets with new entrants that are yet to achieve scalability of
operation.

Will Users Churn Out?

At the time when MNP was initially being discussed, the rationale was that customers are
beholden to a single number, and this prevents them from switching to a telecom
operator with more attractive plans, or better service or network reach. Over the time
that it’s taken to decide on and implement MNP, we’re wondering if it has been made
redundant by a multi-SIM environment. Consumers, for the want of a better service or to
take advantage of multiple plans, are now keeping multiple SIM cards: this has led to an
increase in demand for dual SIM handsets in India, and new telecom operators are
openly talking about trying to become the primary SIM.

That said, some incumbent operators, like Loop Mobile, might find users who have been
with them for a decade, churning out to competitors; alternatively, or even users trying
out another operator for their secondary SIM, for a better plan.

Who do you think will be hit more by MNP – incumbent or the new telecom operators?
The Process

- Customers will have to send an SMS from their phone to 1900

- They will get a unique porting code as SMS from the existing service provider.

- The customer can then make an application in the prescribed form mentioning the code
to the selected new service provider for porting of number.

- A period of 4 days has been prescribed for completion of porting (transfer) of the
mobile number to the network of the new service provider.

Presently BSNL and Tata Docomo announced their attractive MNP offers with freebies.
Wherein subscribers can switch to BSNL at FREE of cost while Tata Docomo charged Rs.
19 for number portability service. Presently BSNL and Tata Docomo announced their
attractive MNP offers with freebies. Wherein subscribers can switch to BSNL at FREE of
cost while Tata Docomo charged Rs. 19 for number portability service.

But in Haryana, less that 1% customers changed their operator in almost two months. More than 1,40,000 out of 19 million
subscribers in Haryana have switched their operators, according to telecom regulator TRAI.

Another surprise is that 97-98 percent of the requesters are pre-paid subscribers; it
was expected that a large number of these porters would post-paid subscribers (3
percent of Haryana’s base). Also, operators anticipate only 1.5 percent subscribers to
churn out in the next two months. A trend seen among the shifters is that a large
number of them are shifting from CDMA to GSM.

Executives at Tata Teleservices have disclosed that 21 percent of their subscribers have opted for a shift
while they anticipate that on an incremental basis 35 percent will be the subscriber inflow.

High paying post-paid customers are what Reliance Communication is looking for since 1 post-paid
customer is equal to 10 pre-paid customers. An RCom spokesperson says: “Of the total movement on
postpaid for RCom, 80 per cent are port in (those who want to join RCom). In value terms, this is 73 per
cent of the total value of port ins and port outs (those who wish to leave Rcom) put together.”

Another major player, Vodafone Essar, has revealed that their ratio of inports to outports is 2:1. “Once a
request comes for a change, most operators are calling the subscriber, pleading not to shift. If that does
not work, the processing of the request is being delayed. However, we all know we can’t do this too long,”
says a leading operator.
It is clear that operators are trying hard to retain their subscribers, mainly post-paid.
Most operators, including market leader Airtel and Reliance Communications, however, have refrained from advertising over
number portability as they don't expect any great impact from the new service.

Idea Cellular, which started the 'No idea? Get Idea' campaign to woo subscribers of rival telcos with MNP months ago, has
opened a toll-free line to assist customers wanting to switch to Idea and launched a fresh television commercial on Tuesday.
The campaign will run for some time.

India's second-largest mobile operator, Vodafone, too is upbeat about MNP, following a positive response in Haryana where
number portability was introduced on November 25. The telco has brought back the famous Hutch pug for its 'Everybody's
Welcome' campaign around MNP.

India Number portability postponed again(New Date is 20th Dec

2010)
October 24, 2010 | Author: LT contributor | Posted in MNP

The much awaited launch of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in India further postponed again to 20th Dec 2010. This
is the third postponement in less than a year. Mobile number portability was first expected to kick off on December
31, 2009 in the metros and category-A circles, and on April 1, 2010 in the rest of the country. The delay is due to not
readiness of some of the Mobile operators for the service and the investment proposal of the overseas partner of one
of the two companies mandated to implement portability has not yet been cleared by the Foreign Investment
Promotion Board.
The Department of Telecommunications had given licences to two companies: Syniverse Technologies and MNP
Interconnection Telecom Solutions which is a 74-26 joint venture between US-based Telcordia and Deepak Talwar
Consultants. In March 2009, Telcordia had received FIPB’s approval. But the Ministry of Home Affairs subsequently
proposed to revoke the approval, citing security concerns as Telcordia had signed a contract with Pakistan MNP
Database for implementing mobile number portability there. Further, Deepak Talwar Consultants had no expertise in
running a telecommunication network. FIPB had thus revoked its clearance given to the company. But it again applied
for permission; FIPB has deferred the proposal.

Dec 2009 scenario

The total number of mobile subscribers was 506 million at the end of November, up from 488 million in October. About
43 out of every 100 Indians now have mobile connections, according to TRAI. The country added 17.7 million mobile
subscribers in November, following deep tariff cuts by established players and new rollouts by existing and new
operators. The number of fixed line subscribers dipped by about 98,000 to 37.2 million in the same period, reflecting
the declining popularity of fixed line telephony in the country.

Dec 2010 scenario

760 million subscribers with >730 million wireless subscriber base growin at 2-2.5 % each month