Bharti Airtel, Aircel and BSNL accounted for the highest number of violations related to mobile number portability (MNP) norms in the last three financial years.
According to the data tabled by Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha in the Lok Sabha, most number cases related to violation of MNP norms were reported in 2013-14 and their number declined sharply to 9 in 2015-16.
In total, 1,82,570 cases of MNP rule violation were found against operators, of which 1,81,837 cases were reported in 2013-14. As per the data, 93,552 instances of non-compliance to MNP rules were found against Bharti Airtel since 2013-14. Airtel was followed by Aircel (30,149 cases), state-run BSNL (21,970 cases) and Vodafone (21,131 cases) in violation of MNP norms. The number of cases found against Idea were 10,450, Tata Teleservices 3,967, Sistema Shyam (MTS) 1,018 and Loop 144. In 2015-16, 4 cases related to MNP rule violations were found against Bharti Airtel, and 5 against RCom.
No case of such violation was reported against any other operator during the year. Mobile number portability (MNP) service allows a customer to change his or her telecom operator while retaining the mobile number.
“TRAI received complaints regarding disputes of ownership of the mobile numbers, consequent to porting from one service provider to another service provider,” Sinha informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
Except Vodafone, Airtel and Idea, all telecom operators have been net losers of customers under MNP scheme. Sinha said that in order to strengthen the process of verification of the ownership of the mobile number under porting, after due consultation with stake holders, telecom regulator Trai had issued a direction in April 2015 to telecom operators to obtained an undertaking from the subscriber seeking porting of his mobile number.
“In case the undertaking is found to be false, the said mobile number shall be disconnected. All Telecom Service Providers have submitted their compliance to the above said TRAI direction. Further, it has been incorporated in their customer acquisition forms,” Sinha said.
The minister also shared number of non-compliance service quality regulation by telecom service providers. As per the data, maximum instance of non-compliance has been observed against BSNL since 2013, followed by Aircel, Tata Communications, Reliance Communications, Airtel, Vodafone MTNL and You Broadband. Non-compliance instances by other service providers has been less than 50.
[“source-gsmarena”]