MNP requests surge 24% to 10.57 mn users in May

Mobile Number Portability (MNP) requests jumped nearly 24% in May to 10.57 million subscribers, from 8.541 million in the preceding month, showed Trai data released today.

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), in all, 10.57 million subscribers had submitted requests until May to different service providers under MNP, a service that allows people to change operators while retaining the same number.

Out of these requests around 0.632 million pertain to Haryana where MNP was implemented from November 25, 2010.

Overall, maximum requests were received from Gujarat (1.053 million), Rajasthan (0.825 million), Karnataka (0.795 million) and Tamil Nadu (0.774 million).

According to May visitor location register (VLR) data, the number of active mobile users were only 588.13 million -- as against the total subscriber base of 840.28 million.

VLR numbers provide details on active customers at any given point of time, excluding switched-off and out-of- coverage area customers.

"The total active VLR number excludes the CDMA VLR figure of BSNL, as the state-owned operator did not provide the VLR figures corresponding to their total CDMA subscriber base of 5.37 million," Trai said.

The proportion of VLR subscribers is approximately 69.99% of the total wireless subscriber base reported by the service providers.

Circle-wise, Jammu & Kashmir has the highest proportion of VLR subscribers with 80.97%, followed by Assam (77.43%) and Maharashtra (75.11%).

Mumbai has the lowest proportion with 55.35%. Service Provider wise, Idea leads the tally with 92.33%, followed by Bharti with 89.10%. MTNL is at the bottom with 34.39%.