Customers dread MNP
It is an offer to allow people to get better service while retaining their old phone numbers, but mobile number portability (MNP) seems to have left consumers frustrated.
Telecom operators are struggling with issues of quality, billing continues to be tangled up, and, in some cases, negligence has led to more confusion. Many consumers say MNP requests have been rejected without any reason.
In December 2011, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was looking to initiate legal proceedings against telecom operators like Airtel, Vodafone and Idea for unjustified rejection of requests. It found in its investigations that Airtel had deviated from MNP regulations in 893 cases, while Vodafone in 792 cases and Idea in 313. Reliance Communications had 307 complaints while Tata Teleservices had 149.
TRAI issued new MNP regulations in September 2012 under which penalties could be imposed upon operators for unjustified rejection of requests. However, in a written reply to Rajya Sabha in March 2013, Minister of State for Communications and IT, Milind Deora said no penalties had been imposed so far.
Industry experts say MNP is not significant in business terms. “Telecom is a cash-starved industry and service providers are not bothered about porting requests and complaints relating to them. For them, what is not a business priority at all,” Sandip Biswas, director, Deloitte India.