Eligibility + Customer Rights + Operator Obligation – Rules + Regulations for Mobile Number Portability in India
The long awaited [yes for over 3 years] Mobile Number Portability is all set to go Live this Year, finally 
TRAI just minutes ago issued complete guidelines on Eligibility, Consumer Rights, Operators Obligations for undergoing the same. Here is an excerpt,
- There is a time restriction of 90 days from the date of activation of his mobile connection, or, where such mobile subscriber number has been ported earlier, from the date of activation of his mobile subscriber number after the last such porting, as the case may be.
- Request for porting of mobile subscriber number shall be made in writing withe the necessary fees to the Recipient Operator or their agent
- Withdrawal of request for porting forfeits your fees paid to the Recipient Operator
- Recipient Operator has to do subscriber verification within 5 working days and forward the request for porting to the MNP Agency.
- MNP Agency verifies that the number satisfies the 90 day clause and forwards the request to Donor Operator[Existing]
- Donor Operator shall, within two working days, verify such details and communicate to the MNP Agency
- Assuming Donor Operator clears the Number for porting, Donor and Recipient operator fix tentative date and time to transfer the number. [There is an expected no service period during the porting exercise and callers to the number will be informed about the same]
- Grounds on Which your Existing Operator Can Reject the MNP Request – identity mismatch, number already disconnected, outstanding dues, 90 day clause is not satisfied and any legal / lawful objections
- MNP Agency will make all efforts to resolve expeditiously all inter-operator issues relating to the porting of mobile subscriber numbers
- Fees for the same is not yet fixed
- Time Limit for completing the entire procedure is also missing [maybe I should re-read the document] but what is evident is 5 + 2 working days in a sunny day scenario should be enough but don’t be surprised even if it takes 15 days as this will be a mess in the beginning.
Service will go live sometime in Sept-Oct this year for Metro and Category A Circles.
Revised 3G Spectrum Reserved Prices + Availability – Govt to get USD 5 Bn
The 3G spectrum auction is back on the table. On Jan-2, we reported that the 3G spectrum reserved price is likely to be doubled at the behest of Finance Ministry to Rs 4,040 cr and it looks certain now.
The Government would now auction up to six blocks per circle (excl. one block given to BSNL/MTNL). We expect the bidding to be more rational and likely closer to the Reserve Price, as spectrum supply would now be closer to the likely demand (6 large operators per circle). At the Reserved Price, Government will fill its coffers in exces of USD 5.5 Bn.
This chart shows the spectrum availability and reserved price across various circles in India. Rajasthan is likely to see some hectic bidding because of just 1 block being made available for bidders.
Stay tuned for more updates and complete analysis of 3G in India.
Indian Wireless Subscriber base at 410 mn – Grows 50% YoY – 36% Penetration
For the month of May-09, Indian Wireless Operators added 11.6 mn subscribers little less than 11.9m in Apr. Total sub base was ~410m (+50% yoy), implying a penetration of 35.6%. The mom decline in net-adds was led by BSNL (net adds down 0.6m) and Vodafone (down 0.2m). All other leading telcos reported a steady or a modestly growing trend in net-adds.
RCom – Subscriber Grows , No Revenue Growth Yet: Reliance added 2.4 mn subscribers mainly fueled by aggressive GSM launch. We are more concerned about their muted revenue growth, infact the slowest at just 2% QoQ.
Bharti Airtel still leads in both Subscriber market share as well as Revenue market share. RCom has the second larges subscriber market share followed by Vodafone India, BSNL and Idea Cellular. The following pie-chart above shows the distribution of wireless operators subscriber marketshare at end of May-2009.
DoT puts 3G auction on fast track
In a move that will speed up the proposed auctions of third generation (3G) spectrum, the key for telcos to launch high-end telecom services such as video-conferencing and high speed internet on the mobiles, the Cabinet is expected to take up the issue soon for discussions.
Communications and IT minister A Raja said on Wednesday that the Union Cabinet was likely to make a move on the issue within next two weeks. The minister met the Prime Minister earlier in the day and discussion between the two is understood to have focused on the 3G auction.
The communications ministry is understood to have prepared a Cabinet note with all the necessary details to go ahead with the auction and the same may be considered by the Cabinet soon. In case the Cabinet approves the ministry’s proposal in its current format, the 3G auctions can be held within couple of months of getting the clearance.
The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) and the finance ministry had earlier been on the cross roads with regard to the pricing of 3G spectrum. While the DoT had set the base price for pan-India 3G license at Rs 2,020 crore and that for corresponding CDMA platform WiMax at Rs 1,010 crore, the finance ministry wanted the base to be doubled to generate greater revenue.
The view of the finance ministry early in the year was that due to economic slowdown, enough number of players may not be available in the auction, resulting in poor pricing of the scarce spectrum, thus making a case for higher base price. However, the situation this time around is quite different. The telecom industry has shown convincingly its robust performance even in wake of the slowdown and the interest of both Indian as well as foreign players in the auction has only increased over time. Further, the outlook of both Indian as well as global economy too has improved considerably from what it was couple of quarters ago. Therefore, the finance ministry may now decide to leave the price discovery on market forces and let the DoT go ahead with the auction at already decided prices.
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