Sunday 8 May 2011

Mobile Number Portability (MNP)

Mobile Number Portability (MNP)

Introduction
Mobile number portability (MNP) enables mobile telephone users to retain their mobile telephone numbers when changing from one mobile network operator to another.

MNP is implemented in different ways across the globe. The international and European standard is for a customer wishing to port his/her number to contact the new provider (Recipient) who will then arrange necessary process with the old provider (Donor). This is also known as 'Recipient-Led' porting. The UK is the only country to not implement a Recipient-Led system, where a customer wishing to port his/her number is required to contact the Donor to obtain a Porting Authorisation Code (PAC) which he/she then has to give to the Recipient. Once having received the PAC the Recipient continues the port process by contacting the Donor. This form of porting is also known as 'Donor-Led' and has been criticised by some industry analysts as being inefficient. It has also been observed that it may act as a customer deterrent as well as allowing the Donor an opportunity of 'winning-back' the customer. This might lead to distortion of competition, especially in the markets with new entrants that are yet to achieve scalability of operation.

A significant technical aspect of MNP (Mobile Number Portability) is related to the routing of calls or mobile messages (SMS, MMS) to a number once it has been ported. There are various flavours of call routing implementation across the globe but the international and European best practice is via the use of a central database (CDB) of ported numbers. Network operator makes copies of CDB and queries it to find out which network to send a call to. This is also known as All Call Query (ACQ) and is highly efficient and scalable. Majority of the established and upcoming MNP systems across the world are based on this ACQ/CDB method of call routing. One of the very few countries to not use ACQ/CDB is the UK where calls to a number once it has been ported are still routed via the Donor network. This is also known as 'Indirect Routing' and is highly inefficient as it is wasteful of transmission and switching capacity. Because of its Donor dependent nature, Indirect Routing also means that if the Donor network develops a fault or goes out of business, the customers who have ported out of that network will lose incoming calls to their numbers. The UK telecoms regulator Ofcom completed its extended review of the UK MNP process on 29 November 2007 and mandated that ACQ/CDB be implemented for mobile to mobile ported calls by no later than 1 September 2009, and for all other (fixed and mobile) ported calls by no later than 31 December 2012.

Prior to March 2008 it took a minimum of 5 working days to port a number in the UK compared to 2 hours only in USA, as low as 20 minutes in the Republic of Ireland, 3 minutes in Australia and even a matter of seconds in New Zealand. On 17 July 2007, Ofcom released its conclusions from the review of UK MNP and mandated reduction of porting time to 2 working days with effect from 1 April 2008. On 29 November 2007, Ofcom completed its consultation on further reduction to porting time to 2 hours along with recipient led porting and mandated that near-instant (no more than 2 hours) recipient led porting be implemented by no later than 1 September 2009.

In a decentralised model of MNP, a FNR (Flexible Number Register) may be used to manage a database of ported out/ported in numbers for call routing.

Operators have been dragging their feet on the topic of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in India for as long as anybody can remember now. What is MNP exactly and why should you care? It matters if your mobile telecom network operator is not giving you the level of service you desire or the type of call plans you want. You might have a mobile phone number that you'd like to keep – because you have given that number to everyone and changing the number will be painful, might prevent some old acquaintances from contacting you, and/or affect your business.

In such a case, you'd like to retain your current mobile phone number, yet shift to a different telecom operator. That is not possible currently. When Mobile Number Portability or MNP becomes available in India, you can finally retain your number, yet change your operator.Here are five facts (and possible issues) that you must know about Mobile Number Portability, some relate to the operator and government, others are concerns that you as a user should know.
1. Technology behind MNP

Admittedly, porting mobile numbers is not as simple as pushing a button. There is a lot that has to happen behind the scenes to allow for it. Expensive equipment, logistics on a mind-boggling scale, and ensuring checks-and-balances by appointing a third-party company to carry out these operations on behalf of both (originating and destination) operators.

2. Operator Fear

The so-called "incumbent" mobile telephony operators have been in the space for a long time. The number of dis-satisfied users are inevitably in direct proportion. When new companies enter the mobile operator space, they have nothing to lose (atleast at first) with MNP. Those operators who have been around longer, fear losing existing customers, with good reason. Besides, prized phone number sequences can be lost to other operators, instead of returning to an operator's own pool of available numbers to hand-out.

3. Logistics, Verifying User Identity

Changing your telephone/mobile/internet provider has always been a "moving" experience. Ask LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) customers in UK and New Zealand about the horrors! Would you have to apply at your prospective mobile operator first, or request porting a number from your existing operator first? Would you have to submit your Proof of Identity documents thrice (old operator, new operator, portability agency)? Despite rules that say the process should complete in 4 days, how long will the porting process take? If there is an interim period when you are effectively a customer of both operators, do you have to pay monthly rental to both?

4. Lock in Period, Inter-circle Issues

After porting your phone number, you are locked in to the new provider for 90 days (three months). If you want to change again, you have no option but to wait out that period. Currently, the Indian government only mentions number portability within a circle (meaning a state in most cases). So you cannot retain the same phone number if you move from Bombay to Delhi.

5. How To Identify A Phone Number?

With landline telephones, all you have to do is look at the STD code, the initial few digits and you can immediately identify a phone number's attributes (physical location and telecom operator). Until MNP comes into effect, you can still do something similar with mobile numbers too. But after implementation, identifying operator, approximate area and age of a number will become that much harder.



Impact of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) The hype around the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) has got some more brushup in the news. Nielsen report has brought some bang-up news for high spenders on mobile. Especially, postpaid users were found to be more overhelmed by the MNP news that will help them switch networks without their number being changed. Nielsen on Mobile Consumer Insights indicates that business subscribers mostly from the postpaid category are more likely to shift their service providers’ gears.

MNP will affect different walks of life. For instance there’s a hovering threat for mobile operators as their presents consumers with the choice of retaining their current mobile phone numbers will change operators. We also covered the delay in the MNPdepartment which definitely created a sense of alleviation among these operators. Certainly the new players in the market would feel thwarted. We had also kept you informed stating ‘Consumers may not have to pay more than Rs 300 to change from one mobile service provider to another while keeping the phone number intact, a facility likely to start from September 20'. But then there was a technical clash between location routing numbers (LRNs) and STD codes in at least 200 sites.

Over 12,500 mobile subscribers were reviewed across 50 centers in India. The Nielsen report also added that prepaid, low and medium spenders are not motivated to switch. The Nielsen Company India Executive Director Shankari Panchapakesan said, “Consumers and the market will decide who the predominant player will be, with the significant developments in the industry of Mobile Number Portability. As the market grows and hyper-competition takes effect, retention of the right type of customers will become critical”. He also added saying that there’s a powerful opportunity for operators to drive in-bound porting of high-value subscribers. But this provided they have a good understanding of who is more likely to switch.

Are the current operators satisfied?

• More than half (55%) of all respondents were generally satisfied with their mobile operator and 48 percent were satisfied with the network quality. Satisfaction scores on network quality dropped for almost all operators, with Airtel, BSNL and Reliance registering the greatest drops. 46 percent were satisfied with the network coverage area of their operator and 43 percent were satisfied with the price they paid for the mobile phone service by their operator.

• Other areas of satisfaction included customer service experience and quality of voice (both 42%), strength of signal, Voice & Data tariff options and accuracy of bills (all 41%), indoor coverage (40%), dropped calls (32%).

• Loyalty to operators is seen to be higher among lower socio-economic groups, older age groups, and among females.

• The circles in which subscribers are more likely to shift are Mumbai and Delhi Metro, UP East and West, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Rest of West Bengal (does not include Kolkata Metro).

• Circles in which subscribers show higher retention levels are Chennai Metro, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, UP East, Rest of Maharashtra (does not include Mumbai Metro), Rest of Tamil Nadu (does not include Chennai Metro), Bihar, and Jharkhand.
How mobile number portability will benefit users

Analysts feel that mobile number portability may trigger the next price war amongst telecom operators that would eventually benefit the end customer. Earlier, the government had postponed the implementation of MNP to October 31 as the operators were not ready with the infrastructure to provide the service. MNP is a service that enables mobile telephone users to retain their mobile telephone numbers when changing from one mobile network operator to another. This was for the third time that the implementation of MNP was postponed in India.

According to telecom ministry statement, 'the government has taken the decision after reviewing the readiness of the various accesses, international long distance service providers and keeping in view the complexity and enormity of the testing involved before MNP is implemented.' MNP reduces the barrier for people to move from one network to another, thus leveling the playing field for new entries into the mobile phone network service provider industry. "The change is expected to increase competition.
"However after an initial churn, there will not be significant shifts by subscribers from one operator to another," analysts said.
The telecom industry has gone through a sea change with respect to pricing after the introduction of a plethora of players over the last one year or so. Analysts believe what has been served is just a preview to the real war.
"The gloves are really off with the introduction of mobile number portability. All this while operators could sit back and relax once they acquired a new customer. "They had the advantage of an inherent barrier as customers were reluctant to switch between networks due to the effort of recreating their social network on their new numbers", said Arun Singh Shekhawat, vice president of the public interest portal called ChangeMyNetwork.com.

While mobile number portability has existed in countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Hong Kong and the Unites States since the turn of this century, it has been introduced more recently in other South East Asian countries such as Singapore and Taiwan. It was also introduced in Pakistan in 2007. Some of the factors that determine the success of MNP in a country are the penetration of mobiles, the number of mobile network operators operating in a zone, the time taken for a number port and the cost that is charged onto a customer for a number port. According to a survey done by Frost and Sullivan, MNP has worked well in South Korea and Hong Kong and has proven ineffective in Taiwan, Singapore and Japan.

In some developed markets such as Japan and Taiwan the service providers often tied down their subscribers in long-term service contracts that range from 12 to 24 months. In return, service providers subsidised or provided free mobile handsets.
Mobile phone subscribers had to wait until their contract expired, or pay a penalty for breaking their contract if they insisted to switch. This became a huge dampener for customers to avail of the MNP facility in Taiwan and Japan. Research findings point out that the most appropriate time to introduce MNP services is when the mobile penetration is high and new service providers are entering into the market.

All these conditions seem to be making it a perfect storm for the portability service to be availed in India.
MNP will not only intensify the ongoing tariff-cuts among the service providers but also bring improved quality of service and other innovative products and offerings. Shekhawat added that there have been a lot of reports that suggesting that mobile number portability is an urban, post-paid concept. "To the contrary, in India, I wouldn't b e surprised if it's just the opposite. It is a fallacy to expect only metros and post-paid customers to use number portability."

Pros and Cons of MNP

Mobile Number Portability shortly referred to as MNP has been in practice in various countries for some time. In India, it will be introduced on November 1, 2010.
MNP actually refers to the technical feasibility as well as the allowing of a mobile phone subscriber to retain his old mobile phone number despite changing his service operator.For example,if you are a subscriber of BSNL Cell One mobile phone service, you will be allotted a specific mobile phone number for your use.If you wish to change your service to any other service operator say Airtel or Aircell or Tata Indicom, or Vodafone etc,you are allowed to retain the same old mobile phone number that you have been hitherto using in the BSNL Cell One mobile phone service.
However MNP has its own Pros and Cons.

Pros:

1) The Mobile Number Portability (MNP)allows you to retain your existing or old mobile phone number despite switching over to yet another service operator.You enjoy the advantage of retaining your old mobile phone number without unduly worrying about the burden of using or memorizing a new number.

2) Despite switching over to yet another service operator, there is no any additional burden of informing it to your relatives and friends.If you are a business man or a professional like a doctor or lawyer, your customers or clients can contact you with the same old mobile phone number. Hence, despite switching over to a new service provider, you retain your customers or clients intact.

3) You enjoy the benefits of better service from the new operator by retaining the same old mobile phone number wherever you go or reside. Again, each service provider offer some special services that cater to the needs of its bulk customers.You have the added advantage of availing such special services from a new operator by retaining your old mobile phone number using MNP facility.

4) MNP plays a significant role in reducing the fierce competition that prevails between the various service providers. In fact each service provider offers various schemes of tariff and facilities to retain their existing customers and to woo the customers from other service providers. But, by availing the facility of Mobile Number Portability, many subscribers voluntarily switch over from one service provider to another in quest of better service. Thus it ease the burden of better service providers from wooing many subscribers to their mobile phone service. In the result, each service provider will be heavily burdened with the task of providing a better mobile phone service than the other service providers.In other words each service provider will mainly focus his attention in providing the best service to his existing customers and retain them.

5) The facility of Mobile Number Portability is a boon to the countries like India and China, where the mobile phone users are in millions and their density is very high.
However, there are some disadvantages in availing the MNP facility.


Cons:

1) By switching over to a new service provider, a mobile phone subscriber loses the special services and facilities offered by the previous or old service provider once and for all.

2) Despite retaining the same old mobile phone number through MNP facility,it takes time to acclimatize to the operating system and features of the new service provider.

3) In order to avail the MNP facility, you have to keep in touch with two service providers, the old and the new..It involves a number of technical feasibilities as well clerical formalities.

4) By availing the MNP facility, your mobile phone number loses it specific identity associated with a particular operator. Now it is not possible to predict exactly from where a subscriber avails his mobile phone service.

5) Since MNP is an advanced technical facility, it is offered at a comparatively high cost. Hence, a common man may have to pay more for it.

A synonym for telecom revolution?: MNP

Now, consumers could start changing their mobile phone service providers without having to surrender their numbers by this year end.

Indian Telecom regulator TRAI has formulated the guidelines for mobile number portability (MNP), which will be introduced by August-end. TRAI also asked operators to keep their networks ready to roll out the services quickly.
Also, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) confirmed that the telecom operators are actively working on that, but they still need some clarification, but the association substantiates that MNP should come by September this year.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had issued guidelines for MNP implementation in August 2008. Also, in March, DoT had selected two US companies, Syniverse and Telcordia, as technology providers for the implementation. Syniverse will implement the technology in north and west, while Telcordia would handle the services in the south and the eastern states.

Now the question is what MNP is and what are its benefits to common user? Is there any hidden agenda or ill-effects of this transformation? Let’s check it out in the feature.

Mobile number portability (MNP)

MNP enables users to retain their mobile telephone numbers when changing from one mobile network operator to another, avoiding the costs of switching to new numbers. Like India, various countries asked mobile telephone network operators to offer MNP, but the question is whether it can produce positive net benefits.


Benefits of number portability

1. It facilitates consumers to choose across mobile operators, as it removes the inbuilt cost of a number change when moving to a new provider.

2. Any number change involves a natural cost to the user, who would otherwise have to notify friends, family, partners and allies of their new number or re-print cards or stationary.

3. With MNP, consumers can move in between operators, where they may get a better deal on tariffs or services with another operator.

4. The service will be available to both pre-paid and post-paid subscribers.

Number Portability problems

1. High end-user charges for MNP can deter usage of the facility. According to the state-owned Telco BSNL, upgrading networks to allow MNP would cost the company about Rs 1,200 crores and only 2% of the elite customers were likely to use this facility, which suggest that it will cost about Rs 6,000 per user to port their number. Hence, various telecom companies want users to bear number portability cost.

2. Consumers who have wireless connection or any contractual agreement with the service operator could be in trouble by losing its contract or remaining money on the operator, as there is no clear guideline available yet.

3. Also, the process of switching to the new operator will take time and it can run upto 5 days.

4. For a new vendor, with limited infrastructure, it will be very difficult to sustain in the competitive atmosphere and hence, the change-over rate will be higher when MNP is there.

Conclusion

Various customers switch operators at some point after their new mobile subscription, which has many reasons, e.g. changes in individual demand patterns, service innovation, operator new offerings and changing price and quality propositions. So, with the help of new portability, consumers would not change the number but only the service provider without paying any cost.

References http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_number_portability
http://voicendata.ciol.com/content/speak/109050505.asp
http://www.watblog.com/2009/07/30/impact-of-mobile-number-portability-in-india-nielsen-survey/
http://thetelecomnews.com/bsnl-is-ready-to-start-mnp-in-india-by-the-october-31st/2221
http://www.mobilenumberporting.in/
http://business.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/sep/13/slide-show-1-tech-mobile-users-to-benefit-from-number-portability.htm
http://www.articleshmarticle.com/Art/251877/31/Mobile-Number-portability-A-synonym-for-telecom-revolution-8207.html

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