Incumbent operators blocking mobile number portability unfairly, says RJio

While the dispute over interconnection seems to have been settled, Reliance Jio has opened a new front by complaining to the telecom regulator that the incumbents are not providing Mobile Number Portability facility to its subscribers.

In a letter to the regulator, Reliance Jio said that Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular were blatantly violating licence conditions by refusing to give porting facility to subscribers who wanted to shift out of existing networks to RJio.

Reliance said the incumbent operators were declining MNP requests on frivolous grounds with a male fide intent to create an impediment in the entry of a new operator.

“It has caused enormous and irreparable damage to RJio as potential customers may decide not to subscribe to RJio’s services owing to the lack of MNP facility,” the letter said.

RJio said that of 201 porting requests, 180 have been rejected by the incumbent operators of which 161 have been done on “baseless” and “unsubstantial” grounds.

This is in addition to 4,919 corporate mobile numbers issued to employees and members of Reliance Industries Group by Bharti Airtel.

“This was in spite of confirmation from Bharti Airtel that there were no outstanding dues and that the MNP process could be completed,” it said, adding that the telecom regulator needed to intervene.

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