An investigation by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) hat telcos were rejecting porting requests twisting these 2 conditions to suit their purpose.
Bharti Airtel has rejected about 37 lakh requests, Vodafone 27 lakh million and Idea Cellular has refused 21 lakh requests so far.
Mobile number portability allows subscribers to retain their numbers even while switching the operator. The facility, allowed across India from January, 2011, was expected to improve the quality of services through heightened competition.
However, 2 years after the launch of this facility, consumers still face problems shifting their operator.
Penalty Rs. 10,000..!
Acting on many consumer complaints, TRAI proposed a penalty of Rs. 10,000 on telecom operators for every unlawful rejection of a subscriber request. However, till date, no penalty has been imposed on any service provider
Telecom firms defend their position on the ground that, initially, there were too many grey areas. Said Mr. Rajan Mathews, Director-General, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI): “Of the total porting requests of 8.5 crore, only 1.4 crore have been rejected, so it is not that portability is being blocked. There were too many complexities in rolling out this facility across India. There was also no clarity on things such as whether operators can allow porting to life-time pre-paid card users.” Senior TRAI officials told BL that the regulator has been cracking down on operators violating porting rules.
“We have started legal action against operators who are not following the regulation & more action will be taken if we find violations,” the TRAI official said.
According to data released by the Telecom Ministry, Bharti Airtel received the maximum number of requests for porting into its network. The largest mobile operator got port-in requests from 2.38 crore users compared to 1.84 crore port-out requests.
Vodafone has got requests from 2.37 crore subscribers wanting to move into its network and 1.68 crore from those wanting to leave its network.
The portability facility has hit players such as Reliance Communications & Tata Teleservices as they have more subscribers leaving their network than those looking to port in.
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