Lok Sabha Question No. 1889 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-03-07
Subject: Reduction in the Charges for Mobile Number Portability
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: BIDYUT BARAN MAHATO, VIJAY KUMAR S.R., ASHOK SHANKARRAO CHAVAN, A. ARUNMOZHITHEVAN, KUNWAR HARIBANSH SINGH, SUDHEER GUPTA, T. RADHAKRISHNAN, ANWHAR RAAJHAA, NARANBHAI KACHHADIA, GAJANAN CHANDRAKANT KIRTIKAR

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1889 TO BE ANSWERED ON 7 th  MARCH, 2018

## REDUCTION IN THE CHARGES FOR MOBILE NUMBER PORTABILITY

## 1889.  SHRI BIDYUT BARAN MAHATO:

SHRI S.R. VIJAYAKUMAR:

SHRI ASHOK SHANKARRAO CHAVAN:

SHRI A. ARUNMOZHITHEVAN:

KUNWAR HARIBANSH SINGH:

SHRI SUDHEER GUPTA:

SHRI T. RADHAKRISHNAN:

SHRI A. ANWHAR RAAJHAA:

SHRI NARANBHAI KACHHADIYA:

SHRI GAJANAN KIRTIKAR:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Telecom  Regulatory  Authority  of  India  (TRAI)  has  reduced  the charges for Mobile Number Portability (MNP) by approximately seventy nine per cent and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether  the  Government  has  been  receiving  complaints  pertaining  to  the violation of MNP norms by the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) and if so, the details thereof along with the action taken by the Government thereon, TSP-wise;
- (c) whether the public sector TSPs are rampantly losing customers due to MNP and if so, the details thereof including the number of customers of these TSPs ported out of the  said  network  during  each  of  the  last  three  years  and  losses  suffered  therefrom during  the  said  period,  TSP-wise  along  with  the  reasons  therefor  and  the  remedial measures taken by the Government in this regard;
- (d) whether the number of porting requests has increased substantially during the last three years and if so, the details thereof, year-wise; and
- (e) whether the MNP has helped increase the mobile density in the country and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS & MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (SHRI MANOJ SINHA)

- (a) Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued 'The Telecommunication  Mobile  Number  Portability  Per  Port  Transaction  Charge  and Dipping Charge (Amendment) Regulations, 2018 (03 of 2018)' on 31 st January, 2018.

As  per  Regulations,  Per  Port  Transaction  charge  has  been  reduced  from  Rs.19/-  to Rs.4/-.

(b) After  implementation of  the  Mobile  Number  Portability  (MNP)  in  January  2011, TRAI had received a number of complaints wherein the subscribers had reported that their porting requests were rejected by the donor operators on various grounds.

The Telecom Service Provider(TSP)-wise details of MNP complaints received for the last three years and current year (till January 2018) are attached as Annexure-I .

On examination, it was noticed that in many cases rejection of porting requests of the subscribers was  not in accordance  with the provisions of the regulations. Accordingly, directions were issued to concerned TSPs to ensure compliance with MNP regulations, so that MNP process is smooth and convenient to the subscribers.

In addition, show cause notices were also issued against those service providers who had contravened the MNP regulations. Further, TRAI had also issued Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability (Fourth Amendment) Regulations, 2012 dated 19 th September, 2012 providing financial disincentives for unjustified rejection of porting request and for violation of timelines specified in the regulations. So far, financial disincentive of Rs. 9,89,11,000 /- has been levied on the service providers under these regulations.  The  TSP-wise  details  of  financial  disincentive  imposed  are  attached  as Annexure-II .

(c) The  details  of  Port-outs  and  Port-Ins  of  public  sector  telecom  companies  viz., BSNL and MTNL, are attached as Annexure-III.

The  public  sector  telecom  companies  have  taken  number  of  measures  to improve  the  situation  like  improving  quality  of  Network  by  augmentation  of  Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) in areas where congestion is being observed, optimizing of network, monitoring of Uptime of BTSs, and wide publicity through media highlighting the advantage of availing services from these telecom companies, etc.

(d) The details of cumulative porting requests of all TSPs for the last three years are attached as Annexure -IV .

(e) The facility  of  MNP  allows  the  mobile  subscriber  to  change  its TSP  within  one Licensed Service Area (LSA) and/or from one LSA to another LSA within the Country while  retaining  the  mobile  number.  MNP  does  not  have  any  direct  impact  on  mobile density in the Country.

## MNP complaints received during the last three years and current year, TSPs-wise

| Telecom Service Provider                           |   2014-15 |   2015-16 |   2016-17 |   2017-18 to till Jan- 18 |
|----------------------------------------------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|---------------------------|
| Aircel Ltd.                                        |       156 |       165 |        97 |                       114 |
| Bharti Airtel Ltd.                                 |       976 |       981 |       809 |                       755 |
| BSNL                                               |       105 |        65 |        43 |                        39 |
| Idea Cellular Ltd.                                 |       609 |       562 |       582 |                       558 |
| Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. (RJIL)                  |         0 |         0 |        15 |                        43 |
| Loop Mobile (India) Ltd.                           |        90 |         0 |         0 |                         0 |
| MTNL                                               |        16 |         8 |        16 |                        11 |
| SSTL-MTS Ltd.                                      |         8 |         6 |         1 |                        23 |
| Reliance Communication Ltd./ Reliance Telecom Ltd. |       449 |       319 |       363 |                       848 |
| Tata Teleservices Ltd.                             |       133 |        90 |        48 |                        41 |
| Telewing (Uninor)/Telenor Communication Ltd.       |        24 |        10 |        11 |                        10 |
| Videocon Telecommunication Ltd.                    |         3 |        10 |        13 |                         1 |
| Vodafone (India) Ltd.                              |      1330 |      1006 |       914 |                      1216 |
| Grand Total                                        |      3899 |      3222 |      2912 |                      3659 |

## Annexure-II

| Financial disincentive levied on various TSPs till December, 2017   | Financial disincentive levied on various TSPs till December, 2017   | Financial disincentive levied on various TSPs till December, 2017   |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Sr. No.                                                             | Telecom Service Provider                                            | Total financial disincentive imposed (in Rs.)                       |
| 1                                                                   | Aircel Ltd.                                                         | 1,58,75,000                                                         |
| 2                                                                   | Bharti Airtel Ltd.                                                  | 4,69,76,000                                                         |
| 3                                                                   | BSNL                                                                | 1,12,49,000                                                         |
| 4                                                                   | Idea Cellular Ltd.                                                  | 70,72,000                                                           |
| 5                                                                   | Loop Mobile (India) Ltd.                                            | 2,41,500                                                            |
| 6                                                                   | MTNL                                                                | 28,000                                                              |
| 7                                                                   | Quadrant Televentures Ltd.                                          | 25,000                                                              |
| 8.                                                                  | Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. (RJIL)                                   | 18,20,000                                                           |
| 9                                                                   | Reliance Communication Ltd.                                         | 64,500                                                              |
| 10                                                                  | Reliance Telecom Ltd.                                               | 89,000                                                              |
| 11                                                                  | SSTL-MTS Ltd.                                                       | 5,09,000                                                            |
| 12                                                                  | Tata Teleservices Ltd.                                              | 23,95,500                                                           |
| 13                                                                  | Telewing (Uninor)/Telenor Communication Ltd.                        | 12,500                                                              |
| 14                                                                  | Videocon Telecommunication Ltd.                                     | 4,000                                                               |
| 15                                                                  | Vodafone (India) Ltd.                                               | 1,25,50,000                                                         |
|                                                                     | Grand Total                                                         | Rs.9,89,11,000                                                      |

## Annexure-III

## Details of Cumulative Port-Outs and Port-Ins of Telecom PSUs viz., BSNL/MTNL

| Period               | BSNL (GSM)   | BSNL (GSM)   | BSNL (CDMA)   | BSNL (CDMA)   | MTNL (GSM)   | MTNL (GSM)   |
|----------------------|--------------|--------------|---------------|---------------|--------------|--------------|
|                      | Port-out     | Port-in      | Port-out      | Port-in       | Port-out     | Port-in      |
| As on December, 2015 | 7282670      | 4749726      | 2804          | 1814          | 407583       | 109377       |
| As on December, 2016 | 9153368      | 7688308      | 3695          | 2026          | 495602       | 132402       |
| As on December, 2017 | 12519819     | 11001938     | 4553          | 2102          | 654823       | 140981       |

## Details of cumulative porting requests of all TSPs

| Period               | Porting requests   | Porting requests   |
|----------------------|--------------------|--------------------|
|                      | No. of Port-outs   | No of Port-ins     |
| As on December, 2015 | 191,859,548        | 194,006,348        |
| As on December, 2016 | 252,216,948        | 254,820,682        |
| As on December, 2017 | 335,207,079        | 338,408,391        |