GSM lobby opposes internal portability

An operator wants to transfer its CDMA customers to its own GSM network.

In an attack on CDMA telecom operators offering GSM services, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the GSM lobby, has objected to “internal” mobile number portability.

In a presentation to the Department of Telecom (DoT) today, the COAI challenged a proposal by a CDMA operator that it be allowed to transfer its CDMA customers to its proposed GSM network.

The internal number portability, if allowed, is likely to benefit service providers like Reliance Communications (RCom), Tata Teleservices and state-owned BSNL and MTNL which offer both GSM and CDMA services.

Mobile number portability gives consumers the choice to change their operator while retaining the number. The DoT guidelines for number portability allow customers to migrate from CDMA to GSM technology within the same operator. However, the COAI contends that such migration has to be conducted through an appointed agency — a sort of clearing house —and not through an internal arrangement by an operator.

The GSM operators have said the move will leave the agency redundant, also ensuring that the exchequer loses the entry fee of Rs 1 crore the agency will pay. The government would also lose the annual licence fee paid by the mobile number portability licensee, they said.

The association said allowing migration from CDMA to GSM would give the operators unfair chance to increase their subscriber base, which is the basis for allotting additional spectrum. The COAI, in its presentation, said, “Manipulation of subscribers could enable the service provider to misuse the system to grab additional spectrum, manipulate revenue streams for different technologies to evade spectrum-usage charges, creating a non-level-playing field among other operators in the industry.”

The COAI said that since the portability would be internal and without the requisite approval by the agency, it would give the operator an edge by allowing it to offer number portability before the scheduled time.

The COAI has requested that the number portability should be introduced at the same time for all operators and should be subject to same policy guidelines. And if the government gives the go-ahead to one operator, the advantage should be offered to other operators as well by allowing them to “internally” port their subscribers to each others’ networks.