Mobile Number Portability

Mobile Number Portability (MNP) gives more power to the consumers in the cellular world by enabling them to retain the number even after changing its service provider. Telecom operators are now in a race to improvise their customer services, improve QoS and mold consumer focused MNP retention packages to reduce churning out. This is the highest stage of consumerism in mobile communication industry and it will create opportunities and threat for telecom companies.

MNP is a very simple process from the customer perspective but it triggers a bit complicated process and a string of actions in the operators end. The subscriber, recipient/new service provider, donor/current service provider and MNP operator are the stakeholders in mobile number portability. There are two service models to porting a number; the donor lead porting and the recipient lead porting. Most of the countries who have initiated the MNP service adopted the latter since it is a subscriber friendly procedure. As a customer one should identify the right reason for changing the service provider, since you have to be with the new provider for at least 90 days before availing the MNP service.

MNP Procedures in India

India, the largest telecom market with many operators and less service rates has chosen the recipient lead approach in MNP. In this procedure the customer who decides to avail the MNP service has to approach the new service provider and obtain the customer acquisition form (CAF) and the porting form. Before submitting the form the customer has to obtain the Unique Porting Code (UPC) from the donor. To obtain this number send SMS to 1900 with text ‘PORT’ followed by space followed by your 10 digit mobile number that you want to port. This auto generated 8 digit code has a validity of 15 days. Fill this code in the porting form and submit both the forms along with the required documents and an undertaking that you will clear all the dues with the donor.

The recipient will send this porting request to the concerned MNPO for the backend porting process within 24 hours. MNPO verifies this request from the recipient and forward it find the request is invalid or the number fails to meet the porting criteria then it reject the request and inform the recipient the same. The donor who receives the successful requests from the MNPO will do the further investigation and sends the confirmation or rejection message to the MNPO. If the donor fails to communicate it within 4 days then the MNPO communicate the deactivation and reactivation of the number to the recipient and the donor and it will be communicated to the user by recipient.

The new service provider will intimate you the date and time of porting on your mobile phone. The complete change over will take place on the 7th working day and there will be a downtime of 2 hours on that day. After the date and time specified on the intimation message, the user can start using the new SIM card provided by the new service provider.

MNP Post implementation analysis in India

Customers are the big gainers in this initiative since they have the option now to switch over to the suitable mobile service provider without compromising the number. Reports show that over 38 lakh customers opted for the mobile number portability. But are they successfully closed? The recent reports unveiled the fact that the customers who have applied to switch to a new network complain they are facing issues and most of issues are due to the existing provider is not allowing the subscriber to switch over.MNP war has revealed the true colors of the telecom companies.

Telecom companies have introduced the customer focused retention packages and welcome packages to increase their customer base. Each company includes more free Local calls, STD calls, SMS and lower the call rates in their offers.

The Gainers and Losers according to the press release PDF from COAI, dated 18th March 2011 is given below

Operators	Total Subscribes in millions	Subscribers Ported in	% Subs ported in	Subs ported out	% Subs Ported in	Net additions	% Net additions
Vodafone	127.36	488,250	0.38	295,489	0.23	192,761	0.15
Idea	84.29	391,191	0.46	240,402	0.29	150,789	0.18
Bharti Airtel	155.80	530,615	0.34	382,400	0.25	148,215	0.10
Aircel	51.83	162,664	0.31	117,822	0.23	44,842	0.09
Uninor	20.31	31,019	0.15	24,689	0.12	6,330	0.03
Videocon	6.01	5,404	0.09	11,633	0.19	- 6,229	-0.10
MTNL	5.43	3,793	0.07	14,851	0.27	-11,052	-0.20
TTSL	86.05	197,404	0.23	236,793	0.28	-39,389	-0.05
BSNL	88.82	107,724	0.12	257,817	0.29	-150,093	-0.17
Reliance	128.87	44,753	0.03	351,170	0.27	-306,417	-0.24

Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_number_portability
http://www.ciol.com/Technology/Networking/Interviews/Indias-MNP-model-will-be-a-success-Syniverse/12210131433/0/

Long Term Evolution

Long Term Evolution a.k.a LTE, is one of the emerging technologies in 4G mobile communication which is being globally adopted by most of the telecom equipment vendors and operators. This technology promises the broadband speed 10 times faster than the current 3G network is supporting. The LTE network offers 5-12 mbps downlink speed and 2-5 mbps uplink speed which will decrease the latency in real time applications, online gaming, connected to a virtual clinic and telematics.

LTE promises a very low latency and high bandwidth. This will set the mobile networks suitable for accessing real time applications where responsiveness is very critical. With this technology you can think about the things like taking high definition videos and streaming it to others mobile across the country, multiplayer online video games with your friends in remote locations, live camera broadcasting etc...

LTE provides a global ecosystem where everyone can tap into using the laptops, personal computers, smartphones and other consumer electronic equipments. It will allow the business customers to connect to the office systems, teleconferencing, video collaborate, stream database applications and other applications to which we had bandwidth and security constraints earlier.

The first LTE network was launched in December 2009, by TeliaSonera and only a few operators have followed the suit. Why operators are waiting to adopt LTE even though it is the next big evolution in the mobile technology? This could be because of the lessons learned from the early 3G front runners who suffered after implementing the expensive networks but had very few compatible devices in the market.

However, LTE offers the equipment vendors a unique opportunity to create a long term relationship with operators and its associated companies. The early adoption of LTE has the advantages like capture the highest-spending users market, improve the brand equity by projecting as a technology leader, gain better knowledge and experience in the technology than its rivals. In addition to the these advantages the early migration will lower the CAPEX over time through long term partnerships and lower the OPEX by integrating the existing networks into single core network earlier than the rival operators.

Some of the vendors & operators Launched LTE are given below.

      NetCom (TeliaSonera) – Operator (Norway)

     Telia (TeliaSonera) – Operator (Sweden)

     Vodafone – Operator (Germany)

     Verizon Wireless - Operator (US)

     Ericsson – Network Vendor

     Huawei – Network Vendor

     NSN – Network Vendor