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Navin Suri

Thomas K Thomas

Indian mobile users will soon get the benefit of Mobile Number Portability (MNP), which will allow them to change their operator without having to give up their phone number.

Navin Suri, Vice-President, Telcordia, one of the companies that has shown interest in implementing the system in India, explains the relevance of number portability. Excerpts from a chat:

India already has a lot of competition in the mobile space. Do we need number portability? What are the benefits to a consumer other than having the choice to retain number?

Number portability benefits consumers. It empowers the consumer to be a lifelong owner of his phone number and fosters additional choice and convenience in communication services and providers with whom they do business. With number portability, operators will look to differentiate themselves on service quality and by accelerating the creation and deployment of new services, all of which will benefit consumers.

Should number portability be introduced across fixed line telephones and cellular phones simultaneously? Is there any risk in introducing mobile number portability alone?

Fixed line and Mobile number portability can be implemented independently. The decision on the best way to roll out number portability varies by country and is subject to how swiftly the operators and the regulator want to implement the service. For instance, across most of the 27 European Union countries and Mexico, both fixed and MNP was implemented together. With that said, there is no risk in implementing MNP by itself.

Several countries have done so, e.g. Malaysia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Pakistan, to name a few. With the successful deployment and adoption of mobile number portability these countries are now looking to bring the value and convenience of number portability to fixed lines as well.

Does number portability increase the rate of subscribers leaving one network for another?

Subscribers do not churn because of Number Portability and portability does not increase churn rates. The reality is that consumers change service providers for better services, price or quality. Number portability simply lets them switch carriers and keep their phone number, which is an added convenience and value to the subscriber.

Interestingly, empirical studies have shown that only a small percent of ‘churn’ customers actually port their number — futher underscoring that number portability does not drive customer loyalty in the way that services, quality and prices do. In the US, the annual churn rate 14.7 per cent only turned into 5.4 per cent of ported numbers. In Germany, the churn rate was 20 per cent, of which only 0.4 per cent ported their numbers.

Some insights into how it has worked in other countries…

Number portability varies dramatically by country. There are several factors that contribute to the success of portability. Some of them are:

Customer Satisfaction: Service choice, price and quality are the driving factors as to which service providers customers use. When they feel that they are getting high-quality services at the right price, they are less likely to churn.

Simplicity and Speed: The process to port a number should be simple and quick.

Zero to low porting cost: Regulators in some countries do not permit fee to be charged to subscribers — Denmark, Finland. In other countries, although a subscriber fee is allowed, market forces are driving the porting fee to be free — Hong Kong, Switzerland, Ireland.

Operators in some countries cover the porting fee as subscription fee to all users — US.

tkt@thehindu.co.in

More Stories on : Interview | Telecommunications

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