Vodafone Gains Most From Mobile Number Portability; RCom Biggest Loser: Sinha

As per the data presented by Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha to the Lok Sabha Wednesday, 4.7 crore customers joined Vodafone while 48.65 lakh customers moved out of its network through MNP facility.

Vodafone was followed by Airtel (3.82 crore users) and Idea (1.8 crore users) in customer gain through MNP.

Apart from these three companies, other telecom operators have been net loser of customers in MNP process.

In case of RCom, 2.74 crore customers ported out from its network (Reliance Telecom, RCom GSM and RCom CDMA) while 1.56 crore subscribed its services, resulting in net loss of 1.18 crore customers.

RCom was followed by Aircel which lost 71.58 lakh customers, Tata Teleservices (TTSL) 64.5 lakh, Telenor 47 lakh, Videocon 32.55 lakh (closed mobile services), BSNL 19.2 lakh and MTS 6.11 lakh. The list included names of Etisalat and Loop which shut their services in the country.

Sinha said that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) received a number of complaints wherein the subscribers had reported that their porting requests were rejected by the donor operators on various grounds.

"On examination of MNP complaints, it was noticed that in many cases, rejection of porting requests of the subscribers was not in accordance with the provisions of the regulations.

Accordingly, directions were issued to concerned service providers to ensure compliance of MNP regulations," he said.

Trai has imposed cumulative penalty of Rs. 9.45 crores for not complying with MNP rules by hampering exit of customers from their network, as per the data.

Maximum penalty of Rs. 4.68 crores for violating MNP rules has been imposed on telecom major Bharti Airtel followed by 1.58 crore on Aircel, Rs. 1.22 crores Vodafone, Rs. 1 crores BSNL, Rs. 54.8 lakh Idea , 23.33 lakh TTSL, Sistema Shyam Rs. 5 lakh and Loop Mobile Rs. 2.41 lakh.

Penalty on rest of the player was below Rs. 1 lakh.