Mobile phone number portability

By Aditya Mhatre at 15 November, 2007, 3:46 am

Over the last few years, the India vs. China debate has not only captured the world’s attention, but also divided it into two. While China over the years has consistently overtaken India on most of the macro economic parameters, but recently India beat China at its own game by becoming the fastest growing telecom industry in the world. India has been consistently been adding more than 7 million subscribers every month, and these additions are expected to rise to 8 million by the year end.
The tele-density in India has shown exponential growth over the last few years. The high growth regions are not the metros but the B and C circles. The liberalization of the sector has attracted intense competition, driving down call charges to less than 2 cents a minute, one of the lowest in the world. The growth in subscribers has been largely skewed towards the wire less technology. The cellular phones out number the land lines in the ratio of 4:1. However, in a bid to capture market share, the telcos have lost focus on their core area which is to provide high quality voice data. Instead they have exclusively focused their attention on the marketing, trying to drive up their subscriber base. Most of the major networks have been pulled up by the Regulator due to their poor quality of service (call drops, poor coverage etc).

Mobile Number Portability
In the current scenario, number portability seems to be the apt solution to send out a clear message to the telecos � focus on quality. Mobile Number Portability (MPN) allows subscribers to change their service provider while retaining their old number. This technology has successfully been implemented in a number of countries. While the Regulator is in favor of launching this service by 2007, the operators argue that it is too early for India to introduce number portability. There are two issues which are highlighted by them � the Indian market is undergoing a growth stage, and if MNP is implemented it would result in a large churn of subscribers. The second concern of the telcos is with regard to the economic and operational issues, which may arise out of implementing MNP at the current juncture.

Is it too soon? Heck no!
The Indian telecom market has matured to a great extent, and these concerns can be overcome for a successful implementation.� In fact the consultation paper by TRAI has focused primarily on these issues. While it has been thought that number portability has the greatest impact in a mature market where service demand growth has eased, however recent examples have shown that it can be implemented earlier. Netherlands provided the service when mobile concentration was 10%, Pakistan too with 6.9% cellular penetration is planning to introduce it soon.. This clearly shows it is not too early for India, which is now home to more than 5% of the 2.5 billion mobile subscribers worldwide, to introduce the service.�

To offer number portability the operators would have to create and maintain a large database of their subscribers. This would have both financial as well as technical implications for the service providers. While the financial costs can be recovered from the end user, it is the technical implications which are a little more complex. For a call to route through to the subscriber who has changed its operator, the telcos have options of using various solutions. By implementing the service in a phased manner, the telcos can in the short run, use a less efficient (lower cost) solution. By providing the service to areas which have relatively higher levels of business subscribers, would ensure the benefit gets passed on to the customer who may need it the most.

What is there in it for the telcos?
The creation of a database would serve a dual purpose to the telcos. This information would help the telcos in their verification drive, which they are undergoing in the recent past. Also all the operators would have access to credit profile of the customer. This would enable a service provider to reject a customer, if he chooses to switch his operator for the wrong reason.

“Your Voice is breaking!”
Over the last two years, TRAI has brought out a number of reports highlighting the poor quality of services being offered by the operators. However, apart from merely taking note of the deteriorating service levels on a quarterly basis, there seems to be no tangible measures either from the operator’s side to improve the quality or from the Government’s side to punish service providers who do not meet the set benchmarks. The result: consumers have to put up with frequent call drops and `your voice is breaking’ type conversations. It is high time the market rules start applying to the telecom industry.� Just as a company’s stock price falls on the stock markets, as the investors punish it for poor earnings, this market maxim should be applicable to telcos as well � reward the companies which provide value; move out of ones which do not.

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Categories : Technology