New Delhi, Jan. 19: Good morning, mobile phone users, no one can now take your cell number away from you. Even if you change providers.

Mobile number portability (MNP), which allows customers to switch service providers without changing their cell number, will be available across India from Thursday (January 20), adding a crackle of enhanced choice to the radio waves.

Under the porting facility, subscribers can change providers within a city and between CDMA and GSM technologies, used to provide voice and data services on a mobile phone.

“I think it’s a great step forward for the consumer, as it enhances choice and brings in more competition, because the more efficient you are as a service provider, the more likely that consumers will choose you,” a PTI report quoted telecom minister Kapil Sibal as saying today.

Telecom operators, however, said there might not be a huge customer churn.

“For the first three to six months, we might see the churn going up to 6 to 7 per cent from the current levels of about 4 per cent per month. But then it will stabilise,” said Prashant Singhal, telecom analyst and partner in consulting firm Ernst & Young.

Among India’s 700 million mobile subscribers, the 4 per cent churn every month originates especially from the pre-paid segment, which accounts for 96 per cent of total subscribers.

“MNP will not be a game changer.… Uninor’s customers are the least likely to change to another,” said Rajiv Bawa, EVP, corporate affairs, Uninor, which operates only as a pre-paid service provider.

“As a young operator in a pre-paid market, we have been working in a high-churn environment from day one,” Bawa added. “So this isn’t a new challenge.”

Aircel COO Gurdeep Singh, too, said he expected a “similar churn as normally happens”.

Number portability is allowed in most countries, and figures for 2007 reveal a modest 4.5 per cent users changed their telecom providers.

But many do feel there could be a switchover from a CDMA connection to a GSM service. While the SIM card is locked to the handset in a CDMA (code division multiple access) connection, in GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) a customer can use the same SIM card for different handsets. Voice and data rates are more or less similar in both technologies.

Industry insiders were also sceptical about the relevance and need for number portability in a dual and triple SIM card environment.

“In the current environment (of dual SIM phones), people do not worry about numbers as was the case a few years back when they were reluctant to change their numbers,” said Hemant Joshi, partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells, India.

In its September 2010 issue, industry magazine India Quarterly Mobile Handsets Tracker said phones with dual SIM card slots accounted for 38.5 per cent of the total handset shipments, from less than 1 per cent in the April-June 2009 quarter.

Despite their apparent nonchalance, operators are taking care that post-paid customers who generate high monthly bills are retained through special schemes.

“Waiver of a percentage of monthly bills could be provided as an option to high revenue generating post-paid customers in exchange for not shifting to another service provider,” said a senior executive with a top telecom firm.

“MNP will definitely have higher relevance in the post-paid segment since these number-loyal subscribers haven’t yet had free choice on worries of losing their number identity,” Bawa said.

Even in the pre-paid segment, operators are trying to identify high-value customers who are also loyal to their number identity. “That is where we see our opportunity. With dynamic pricing, we will be able to invite such subscribers to Uninor with a very unique proposition,” Bawa added.

However, mobile operators are not planning to use call tariffs as the differentiating factor as the “high value post-paid segment is less price conscious and more quality conscious”.