Mumbai: It’s been a month since mobile number portability (MNP) kicked in, and as expected, older GSM operators like Vodafone Essar, Airtel and Idea Cellular continue to lure the bulk of subscribers to their network. Latest numbers indicate Vodafone Essar gained as many as 1.7 lakh customers while Idea Cellular ranked second with a net gain of 1.5 lakh. The figures denote the difference between the number of customers porting in and porting out. The country’s largest operator , Bharti Airtel , on the other hand gained 1.35 lakh subscribers of February 20. However, most operators stick by the theory that MNP will not be a game-changer for the industry.
“The revenue impact of new customers who have come on to Vodafone is yet to be ascertained as we need to study a few billing cycles of the post-paid customers to figure how much these new customers are spending,” said Samresh Parida, strategy director- Vodafone Essar. A large proportion of subscriber movement in India is seen in the prepaid segment , which accounts for a monthly churn rate of 4-5 %. “Early analysis also indicates that among MNP portins , we are getting a disproportionate share of highvalue customers from other operators,” said Atul Bindal , president- mobile services , Bharti Airtel. The mobile operator, besides advertising around the MNP, also introduced several freebies such as giving away pizza vouchers and offering discount on monthly bills to retain customers.
Idea Cellular said it had benefitted from its high-decibel advertising campaign . “We had a strong rural footprint but with the launch of MNP, we also wanted to grab the opportunity to strengthen our presence in the big cities and metros and this brand campaign helped us get noticed,” said Himanshu Kapania , deputy MD, Idea Cellular.
On the CDMA front, there has been a large exodus with RCOM being the worst-hit , followed by Tata Teleservices and BSNL. But RCOM said it is looking to gain value and is not worried about the volumes coming in. “Our focus is to get high-spending customers as we are only interested in the value churn,” said Mahesh Prasad , group president, wireless business, RCOM.
The new entrants were also expected to be hit by MNP roll-out . To combat this, these operators lowered tariffs along with doling out freebies. “For us, it’s been the introduction of a unique dynamic pricing product, which gives discounts and it changes from one mobile tower to the next, that is attracting customers to our service,” said a Uninor spokesman. It registered a net gain of 0.3%.
Regional operators have also upped the ante as they feared losing customers. Mumbai-based Loop Mobile said it had an incremental churn of 0.7%, which was one of the lowest among the incumbent operators in the circle as it refurbished its brands identity and launched aggressive
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