In Requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP) have increased from 64.23 lakh users at the end of March 2011 to 85.41 lakh users at the end of April 2011. This is according to the monthly telecom subscription report released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on June 13, 2011. The report also indicates that the users in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Karnataka are most dissatisfied with their service providers, as these states received the received highest number of MNP requests. Gujarat has received 833,672 MNP requests. In case of Rajasthan and Karnataka the number stands 710,767 and 663,151 respectively. For Delhi circle the number stands at more than four lakh.
The MNP system allows users to switch their subscribers while retaining their mobile number. Only last month, TRAI had directed the Indian telecom companies to refrain from rejecting requests, if the users outstanding dues were less than Rs. 10. The telcos were directed to include any amount under Rs 10 in the customer's next bill without any penalty. Many requests for MNP have been rejected because of non-payment of outstanding dues or non-completion of 90 days from the date of activation of the mobile number. Some users also had their requests rejected because they made a mistake while quoting the Unique Porting Code, which is the number given to a subscriber who wishes to change his operator.
The TRAI report also indicates that the total wireless subscriber base in India has increased to 826.93 million at the end of April 2011 that is up by 1.89% from the figure of 811.59 million at the end of March 2011. The share of the urban subscriber seems to have marginally declined to 66.20% from 66.30% and there has been a corresponding increase in the rural subscriber base. The overall wireless tele-density for the entire country stands at 69.19 at the end of April 2011. In urban areas, the wireless tele-density stands at 152.41 at the end of April 2011, and in the rural areas it is at 33.44. Private operators are holding 88.21% of the market in the country, whereas MTNL and BSNL hold only 11.79% of the market share.
Bharti Airtel has the largest chunk of the wireless subscriber base at 19.91% according to the TRAI report. Reliance communication is a close second at 16.77%. Total broadband subscriber base has increased from 11.87 million in March 2011 to 12.01 million in April 2011, thereby showing a growth of 1.17%. A connection that offers at least 256 Kbps download speed is termed as a broadband connection.
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