Ruling has some subscribers worried

“I am very concerned about what will happen to my current mobile connection. If it gets cancelled in the future I will have to get all my documents in place all over again,” says a worried Loop Mobile subscriber in Mumbai.

Though the Supreme Court's verdict is expected to have a limited impact on subscribers, it has caused a lot of confusion among them. Only five per cent of the total subscriber base or 45 million people are going to be affected by the cancellation of the 122 licences.

Companies whose licences stand to be revoked had, at the time of their launch, come out with attractive offers with much fanfare to lure new subscribers.

Uninor for instance had offered a plan allowing users to make local and STD calls at just 29 paisa and 49 paisa per minute respectively as part of its launch in 2009.

However, now with the verdict, it remains unclear if these consumers would continue to receive such benefits from the new service provider they migrate to. However, consumers will be insulated from any change for four months, the time given by the Apex Court to the TRAI to issue new guidelines.

In fact, earlier in the day, the TRAI Chairman, Mr J.S. Sarma, said customers would not be impacted by the verdict as 95 per cent market share belongs to those who got licences before January 2008. The mobile customer base in the country is estimated at 900 million.

After the four-month period though, consumers will have to change their numbers through the number portability process if their service providers' licence stands cancelled.

“In case the licence of the service provider has been cancelled, subscribers will face some problems if they have to port their numbers. This would be in the form of going through the Know Your Customer process again and recovering their deposit with the service providers (in case of post paid),” said Dr M. S. Kamath, General Secretary, Consumer Guidance Society of India, which has 2,500 members.

With guidelines still to be finalised, customers are apprehensive about their existing connections.

Dr Kamath feels that the “transitional chaos” in terms of mobile portability rush could be avoided “if clear guidelines are given at regular intervals and if the telecom operators involved have proper tie-ups with other operators” for consumer convenience.

Idea Cellular's seven circles that would be impacted cover six million consumers out of its total subscriber base of 110 million consumers.

According to Idea Cellular spokesperson, the company would be evaluating all its options to find a solution for its affected customers by the end of the four-month period.

“We would get a clear indication after the four months and meanwhile we are looking at all our options to find out what has to be done,” he said, while declining to comment on what the options may include.

“This judgment is going to be a temporary blip and we don't think there would be much of an impact although there is a fair amount of concern in everyone's mind,” he added.

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