Ministry calls for number portability by September

The communications ministry has given an ultimatum to telecom companies to implement mobile number portability by September, according to a report. This would allow mobile users to change their service provider without having to change their phone number.

If the diktat is enforced, customers will have access to number portability well before the launch of 3G services, due for the year-end or early next year. In the absence of a pan-India 3G operator, the ministry's order means top-end users seeking high speed data services might ditch their telecom company and shift to the services of a 3G operator.

The country's top two mobile firms, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications, each won 13 of the 22 telecom zones on offer for 3G spectrum, while other major operators Aircel, Vodafone Essar, Idea Cellular and Tata won a total of 13, 9, 11 and 9 circles respectively .

Though these companies are due for a big leap in market shares in these zones, there is the possibility of their losing customers in circles where they were unable to bag 3G spectrum.

Bharti Airtel, for instance, could lose up to 6 per cent of its post-paid customers in circles where it failed to bag 3G airwaves when MNP is implemented, a potential revenue loss of up to 8 per cent, said IDFC Securities in a report on Thursday.

''For Bharti, the key circles missing are Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kolkata, Kerala, Punjab and UP East. The nine circles in which Bharti is among the top three operators and has failed to obtain 3G licences account for 31.4 per cent of its total wireless revenue,'' IDFC security analysts Chirag Shah and Abhishek Gupta said.