Dot Rings Mobile Number Portability

[Sadikk 301]

There are forces behind all the delays.. and they are all ADAGs......

[me_saket 73]

There are forces behind all the delays.. and they are all ADAGs......

i never thought that ANIL DHIRUBAI AMBANI GROUP is making delay????

[Sadikk 301]

Well major churning is expected from CDMA operators only...

so they buying time to improve thier GSM infra and keep R-CDMA customers to R-GSM...

[manishag 17]

I do agree that delay is led by political interest of some player.

but the same time there are some technical issues to in porting the no from CDMA to GSM or GSM to CDMA.

as far as i know no transfer is not make and break technology it'll be connection less transfer. so there can be a period when user will be having same no on two different phone CDMA and GSM which is against the policy

[KumaarShah 143]

The conditions of 90 days before switching operators and also the high charges of Rs 200 to rs 300 for every switch will kill the scheme even before its birth.

Secondly, as rightly stated by ipconfig, changing numbers is not at all a major problem, people can find you where ever you may be. Only for people who have to change their stationery like visiting cards, letterheads, etc this may be some sort of a problem. But this also can be surmounted. Keep informing the number change by SMS/Emails/calls. Or retain the old number with a LT prepaid and keep informing all callers over the 6 months that the connection is live. Then dump it or retain as long as the number is live. This will be cheaper than MNP.

These are my observations, for others it may vary....

[Arun 795]

One of 5 mobile subscribers will port numbers when MNP is introduced: Survey

Sify - Business Line

2009-07-30 10:12:04

One of five mobile phone subscribers would change their operator if number portability - which allows users to retain their number even if they changed their operator - is introduced in the market.

The circles in which subscribers are more likely to shift are Mumbai and Delhi Metro, Uttar Pradesh East and West, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Rest of West Bengal (excluding Kolkata Metro).

Circles in which subscribers show higher retention levels are Chennai Metro, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh East, Rest of Maharashtra (excluding Mumbai Metro), rest of Tamil Nadu (minus Chennai Metro), Bihar, and Jharkhand. Loyalty to operators is seen to be higher among lower socio-economic groups, older age groups, and among women.

According to a survey by the Nielsen Co to gauge consumer attitudes and behaviour towards mobile operators in India, one in four Reliance and Tata Indicom subscribers would be keen to change their operator if number migration is introduced, followed by close to one in five (19 per cent) of BSNL subscribers.

The survey covered 12,500 mobile subscribers as respondents across 50 centres in India.

High spenders, post-paid subscribers and business subscribers show a greater tendency to switch if Mobile Number Portability is introduced. Pre-paid, low and medium spend users are not motivated to switch.

Price, primary driver

"When Mobile Number Portability was introduced in the US, price/promotions were by far the leading drivers of acquisition. Ultimately the operator who leveraged the propensity of subscribers to choose based on price/promotions was successful in riding the Mobile Number Portability wave. In India, Mobile Number Portability can be leveraged by operators through smart, targeted marketing and promotions to coincide with the introduction of the facility," said Shankari Panchapakesan, Executive Director, Telecom Practice, The Nielsen Company, and India.

[savramesh 37]

BSNL getting MNP network ready to lure mobile users of rivals

Source

NEW DELHI: In a bid to attract subscribers of rival companies, state-run telecom operator BSNL is gearing up to start mobile number portability (MNP) services as soon as telecom regulator TRAI issues tariff structure.

Even as the implementation of MNP is likely to be delayed from the scheduled date of September 20, the PSU, which hopes to attract substantial number of users from the rivals like Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications, has called for expression of interest for MNP gateway.

A company official said the MNP gateway would integrate BSNL subscribers data system with the Clearing House appointed by the government (Synverse or Telecordia).

BSNL has lost number two GSM operator position to Vodafane Essar due to delay in network expansions. Complaints of poor service has also hit the PSU's efforts to garner more users. In July, BSNL subscriber base stood at 4.9 crore against Bharti's 10.23 crore and Vodafone's 7.64 crore.

The Telecom Department had notified September 20 as the date of implementation for MNP service. Later, Telecom Secretary Siddartha Behura said MNP will come by the year-end as the regulations are being prepared.

Syniverse Technologies and MNP Interconnection have been selected by DoT to carry out the MNP exercise.

[Chirag Thakkar 4]

TRAI says MNP norms by August-end; asks operators to be ready

6 Aug 2009, 1813 hrs IST, PTI

NEW DELHI: Telecom regulator TRAI today said the guidelines for mobile number portability are likely to be ready by August-end and asked

operators to keep their networks ready to roll out the services quickly.

"We will have an open-house on the porting charges on August 11. Within 2-3 weeks from then we will issue the final guidelines on MNP. The clearing house and operators should be ready with their network so that after announcement of the guidelines the service could be implemented," TRAI Member R N Prabhakar said on the sidelines of a conference

here.

Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura last month said that mobile number portability will come by the year-end.

Mobile number portability (MNP) service allows subscribers switch to another service provider or from one technology to another while retaining their mobile number.

The Department of Telecommunications had issued guidelines for MNP implementation in August last year. Earlier in March, DoT selected two US companies --- Syniverse and Telcordia --- as technology providers, called as clearing house, for the implementation.

TRAI is working on regulations and the charges for the same.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News-By-Industry/Telecom/TRAI-says-MNP-norms-by-August-end-asks-operators-to-be-ready/articleshow/4863911.cms

Edited August 6, 2009 by Chirag Thakkar

[Greatest 55]

Announcement after announcement... I am only going to believe after MNP actually starts operations...

[petar 15]

It is coming for real..!! But its better to wait n watch. All systems have initial problems... We need to wait for Dust to settle down.

[Mufaddal 678]

yup it will surely come this yr only

hopefully the expected date of sep

[Arun 795]

Telcos want users to bear number portability cost

8 Aug 2009, 0049 hrs IST

Economic Times

In a move that could make it significantly costlier for mobile users to change their operator while retaining the number, GSM operators have demanded that subscribers be made to bear the cost of the network upgrade required to usher in number portability.

State-owned telco BSNL has told telecom regulator Trai that upgrading networks to allow MNP would cost the company about Rs 1,200 crore, and only 2% of the elite customers were likely to use this facility. Going by BSNL's formula, back of the envelope calculations show that it will cost about Rs 6,000 per user to port their number.

If an average of eight telcos shell out about Rs 1,200 crore each to upgrade their networks, the sector will have an additional burden of Rs 10,000 crore. And if only 2% of the country's 400 million-plus cellular subscribers were to avail MNP, then eight million users must share the cost of network upgradation, which works out to over Rs 6,000 per user.

"Only those customers, for the benefit of whom the MNP is being implemented, should be made to bear the cost of the same and not the ordinary customers, who are not going to get any benefit from the implementation of MNP. All these customers, who will utilise the MNP, are big entrepreneurs, professionals, businessmen who will save huge switching costs, otherwise, they will have to invest on informing friends and business partners about new number, missing calls from uninformed people and updating company web pages, brochures and business cards etc. These customers can afford and must pay for availing this facility," BSNL said its statement to Trai.

Other GSM players share the same stand although they have not provided specific numbers to Trai. Bharti Airtel is of the view that 'all operators who make the investment (for MNP) are entitled to recover their costs'.

"We recommend that the investments being made by operators for the implementation of MNP needs to recovered only from the consumers, who want to port their numbers, and ordinary customers should not be penalised by increased tariffs and call charges from them," Bharti Airtel said in its communication to Trai.

Idea Cellular has said that providing this facility to the consumer would involve a one-time capex and recurring opex and 'hence, service providers should be compensated for these costs'.

MTNL, which offers fixed and mobile services in Delhi and Mumbai, has gone a step further and sought that it be compensated for implementing MNP. MTNL's logic is that its fixed line network has been built by multiple vendors and has a large mix of switches, both old and new, a bulk of which has to be replaced for routing of calls of those customers who retain their number, but change their operator.

"Fixed line operator should also be compensated for the huge additional expenditure required for upgradation of its local, tandem and tax switches for the implementation of mobile number portability. MTNL should be compensated by giving suitable share from the porting charges,"MTNL added.

But, the case for high porting fee has been strongly opposed by CDMA major Reliance Communications, which had also launched GSM services earlier this year. RCOM has said that since it costs less than Rs 50 for a pre-paid subscriber to take a new connection, the porting cost should be lower than this figure and has suggested that the fee be fixed at Rs 20.

The ADAG group-promoted telco has also pointed out that countries, such as Hong Kong & Finland, where the porting charges were kept at a bare minimum had experienced the best results with MNP.

"Having no exit barrier in India is also a main reason for very high churn rate in India and probably also a recipe for successful MNP implementation,"RCOM said. The telco also added that globally most regulators were of the view that costs incurred for implementing MNP were an 'inevitable consequence of a fully competitive mobile market' and were borne by the telcos.

[Mufaddal 678]

sale sab apna fayda dekh rahe hai !

[supernova 47]

if mnp charges are kept very high like 6000 then for normal person it is useless ..

the prices should be low then only these companies will fear porting and deliever good customer care services

[abhisathe 8]

The issue of every customer paying Rs 6000 for MNP is all ****. It seems almost all service providers are paranoid of losing their customers to Reliance GSM/CDMA and thats the reason why they are floating all such ideas to deter customers from moving away. And it seems leading the pack are Airtel and Vodafone.

I don't understand why the GSM companies are not confident about their strengths in the business. Personally speaking, I primarily use BPL Mobile and Reliance CDMA connections. I dont have any problem with BPL mobile when it comes to network, service, tariff and customer care in Mumbai. I also don't have a problem with Reliance CDMA as far as tariff and network is concerned. I doubt whether I would move from BPL to any other GSM provider, although BPL is a small company and may not be providing too many alluring perks to its customers.

Coming back to Rs 6000 per connection for MNP as the newspaper article suggests, do you think the DoT would keep quiet? This reports are being circulated by scare crows and nothing else.

[savramesh 37]

BSNL earmarks Rs 1,250 cr on MNP system upgrade

Source

NEW DELHI: Anticipating to woo a big chunk of mobile subscribers from rivals to its network, BSNL has earmarked a capital expenditure of Rs 1,250 crore to make its network ready for number portability, which allows customers to change service providers without changing numbers.

BSNL is required to make an initial capital expenditure (CAPEX) of about 1,065 cores for making its basic and mobile networks MNP compliant, in addition to annual OPEX of about Rs 185 crores for the purpose of MNP service, said a senior company official.

BSNL has also asked TRAI to consider the huge expenses operators have to undertake while deciding on the porting charges.

The company has asked TRAI to make provisions to ensure parties involved in the operation, donor operators (the subscriber losing operator), fixed line operators, recipient operator and the MNP service provider (either Synverse or MNP Interconnection), get a share of the porting charges,

which are paid by customers who port their numbers.

Analyst say if BSNL's concerns are addressed the cost for a consumer seeking to change service provider while retaining his number will be more than Rs 500. TRAI officials said they are trying to keep the charges around Rs 200.

[petar 15]

I think 500 is still a reasonable cost..!!

Why do u need to keep your number same ? cause its important ?

U must be incurring monetary losses incase of a number change.

So why not pay a little something for this change. 500 is not that huge a charge & still enuff to keep away the time pass crowd.

[aviator 3]

BSNL earmarks Rs 1,250 cr on MNP system upgrade

Source

NEW DELHI: Anticipating to woo a big chunk of mobile subscribers from rivals to its network, BSNL has earmarked a capital expenditure of Rs 1,250 crore to make its network ready for number portability, which allows customers to change service providers without changing numbers.

BSNL is required to make an initial capital expenditure (CAPEX) of about 1,065 cores for making its basic and mobile networks MNP compliant, in addition to annual OPEX of about Rs 185 crores for the purpose of MNP service, said a senior company official.

BSNL has also asked TRAI to consider the huge expenses operators have to undertake while deciding on the porting charges.

The company has asked TRAI to make provisions to ensure parties involved in the operation, donor operators (the subscriber losing operator), fixed line operators, recipient operator and the MNP service provider (either Synverse or MNP Interconnection), get a share of the porting charges,

which are paid by customers who port their numbers.

Analyst say if BSNL's concerns are addressed the cost for a consumer seeking to change service provider while retaining his number will be more than Rs 500. TRAI officials said they are trying to keep the charges around Rs 200.

Wondering why BSNL is so eager for no. portability.............

I know atleast 50 people in J&K who would switch over to some other operator from BSNL if the no. remains same.........

BSNL services are really poor across the country and no. portability will be last nail in its coffin..................lol

[shashank 8]

^^Yeah! Also now even the Private operators like Airtel and Vodafone are having wide coverage on par with BSNL..so MNP will be bane for BSNL!

[me_saket 73]

bsnl may be in talk with some mvno, to attract new customer on thier network, hopefully on cdma too

[savramesh 37]

thats true.

i have a doubt.

mnp will start with

1. any network to any network

or

2. any network to bsnl ??

[iamromeo007 0]

Source

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said on Tuesday mobile subscribers can probably avail the facility of changing service providers while retaining the numbers by December 1.

"The due date is September 20, 2009. Recently, the Department of Telecommunication has taken a review. They seem to be under the impression that it would take a few more months.

"My own guess is that, we would be coming out with our regulations before the end of this month. Thereafter, some more time will be taken for the MNP operators to come up with their own systems," Trai chairman J S Sarma told PTI in Hyderabad.

Trai is working on regulations and on the charges for mobile number portability service. The DoT issued guidelines for MNP implementation in August last year and in March next, two US companies -- Syniverse and Telcordia -- were selected as technology providers for the implementation.

"What I am given to understand and what we have written to the DoT is that some of the operators do not seem to have ordered even for the gateways. So, that will take a delay of 2-3 months. Overall, my feeling is that we should be able to bring in number portability by December 1," Sarma said.

Sarma was speaking on the sidelines of an Open House Discussion on 'Determination of Port Transaction Charge, dipping charge and porting charge for MNP' organised by Trai.

[petar 15]

So here starts .. "THE GREAT INDIAN TELECOM CIRCUS "

[me_saket 73]

Airtel-lion

idea-Joker

vodafone- tiger

bsnl-monkey

mtnl-parrot

aircel-horse

bpl-camel

tata- Elephant

virgin- dancing lady

and rcom-????????????????

[shashank 8]

Rcom-Pig