11 mn users opt for MNP in last 8 months

As many as 11 million mobile subscribers have opted for changing their operators in the last eight months or so, with CDMA operators witnessing the maximum users shifting to the GSM platform.

In the second week of June, the number of mobile number portability (MNP) requests is said to have crossed 11 million from 8.5 million in April. The maximum requests have come from consumers of CDMA players Reliance Communications (RCom) and Tata Teleservices (TTSL).

Taking advantage of the MNP facility that allows a customer to change his telecom operator without changing his mobile number, more than 6 lakh customers of Reliance CDMA and 4.5 lakh of Reliance GSM have requested to exit from its network.

Reacting to the MNP churn, RCom presented MNP data for its network till the end of May and said the company is focusing on post-paid category customers, where it is gaining.

"As per the trends so far, RCom is a net gainer in the post-paid segment. Of the total movement, port ins and port outs on post-paid for RCOM, around 80% are port-ins," said RCom President, Corporate and Wireless - Customer Service, Anurag Prashar.

He elaborated that in value terms, this number is around 73% of customers opting for RComm network out of the total movement of users taking place on its network through MNP.

"[Out of] over 25% of customers porting out, half are contributing nothing to the company's revenues, while the other 50% are of category where Average Revenue per User [ARPU] is less than Rs 50," Prashar added.

In the case of TTSL, close to 4.5 lakh customers on its CDMA network have requested to switch, while its GSM network gained more than 1.5 lakh users through MNP.

The latest data shows that GSM telecom service provider Vodafone is the biggest beneficiary of the MNP facility, gaining over 1 million customers through the MNP facility.

GSM players Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel followed Vodafone in getting unsatisfied customers of other telecom players on their network.

Close to 8.7 lakh customers have requested to shift to Idea and about 6.3 lakh customers have expressed willingness to shift to Bharti Airtel's network.

Around 73,000 unsatisfied customers have requested to shift to Aircel's network.

However, all is not well for the new GSM players, as they are facing the pressure of subscribers wishing to move to established players.