Bringing smiles

New Delhi, Aug. 19: The telecom ministry will soon issue guidelines on number portability. According to the department of telecom (DoT), portability will keep tariffs under control.

Recently, some private operators hiked tariffs even as telecom minister A. Raja was exploring the possibility of a tariff reduction.

The incident prompted the government to get cracking on number portability.

“DoT is holding discussions with service providers to finetune telecom regulator Trai’s recommendations on the issue before it changes the licence conditions to accommodate number portability,” officials said.

Trai, which favoured portability and had recommended that DoT should implement the system by April 2007, was of the opinion that number portability would improve the quality of service and reduce tariff.

The system allows mobile phone users to change service providers without having to change phone numbers.

Usually, unsatisfied customers hesitate to change operators as it entails changes in mobile numbers, which most find inconvenient.

“Number portability will help customers overcome this problem. They will be able to enjoy low tariff, high quality of service, wide coverage and enhanced features offered by particular service providers,” the officials said.

Telecom operators, however, have opposed portability. They said huge investments — to the tune of Rs 18,000 crore — would be required to implement the scheme on a national scale.

Analysts said the operators were apprehensive about the expenses involved in retaining customers, which would affect their profit.

Those who opposed the move said with a teledensity of around 15 per cent, it was too early to implement portability at such a high cost. Teledensity is the number of phone users per 100 people. Since over 90 per cent of subscribers were in the pre-paid category, the sanctity of a number was less relevant, they added.

Mobile number portability has already been implemented in Hong Kong, the UK, Australia, the US, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Singapore.

“There was significant tariff reduction among mobile operators in Hong Kong after the implementation of mobile number portability,” said officials.

Moreover, according to a survey by research firm IDC, “Thirty per cent subscribers are likely to shift to an operator offering a better service, if given the option.”

Even Pakistan, which has a mobile penetration of a mere 6.9 per cent, implemented number portability in April this year.