MNP: more options, but will services improve?

Having resisted it for as long as they could, mobile service providers have now geared up to meet the reality of number portability, which will be introduced nationwide on Thursday.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will himself flag off the service, which allows mobile users to change their operator while retaining their original phone number. As a result, the telecom companies have started taking steps to retain their old customers or wean away new ones from their competitors.

Clearly the increased competition is good news for customers, even though lack of infrastructure limits the telecom companies' options.

A Mumbai-based client of Reliance Communications, dissatisfied with his BlackBerry services, on Tuesday sought to switch to Vodafone. He was immediately contacted and told that while R-Infra couldn't help on the services front, the company would give him a discount on his bill.

"Reliance wants to keep me back, but I need better service," the customer said. Unfortunately he is still likely to be disappointed, even if he changes his provider.

A report says that the senior vice-president of marketing at Idea Cellular will spend the next few days in Mumbai's suburbs visiting hundreds of mobile recharge outlets, trying to get them to convince subscribers of other companies to 'get Idea' now that number portability is imminent.