The Indian telecom market is experiencing poor demand for Mobile Number Portability that allows mobile users to change their service provider without changing their cell number.

In March, 25.99 lakh subscribers requested to different service providers for porting their mobile number. Mobile Number Portability requests have increased from 38.33 lakh subscribers at the end of February 2011 to 64.23 lakh subscribers at the end of March 2011, according to TRAI data. This is despite many schemes offered by services providers to attract customers.

The request from 64.23 lakh customers is out of 573.97 million active wireless subscribers in VLR in March 2011 is not a significant development.

Out of these requests around 4.33 lakh is from Haryana wherein MNP was implemented from 25th November 2010. In rest of the country, in MNP Zone-I (Northern and Western India) maximum number of requests have been received in Gujarat (6.17 lakh) followed by Rajasthan (5.49 lakh) whereas in MNP Zone-II (Southern and Eastern India) maximum number of requests have been received in Karnataka (5.29 lakh) followed by Tamil Nadu Service area (4.74 lakh).

According to TRAI, the number of telephone subscribers in India increased to 846.32 Million at the end of March 2011 from 826.25 Million at the end of February 2011, registering a growth of 2.43 percent.

The share of urban subscribers has declined to 66.65 percent from 66.72 percent where as share of rural subscribers increased from 33.28 percent to 33.35 percent. With this, the overall Tele-density in India reaches 70.89.

Subscription in urban areas grew from 551.27 million in February 2011 to 564.08 million at the end of March 2011. Rural subscription increased from 274.98 million to 282.23 million. The growth of Rural Subscription (2.64 percent) is higher than the Urban Subscription (2.32 percent). The overall urban teledensity has increased from 154.01 to 157.32 and rural teledensity increased from 32.95 to 33.35.

Total wireless subscriber base increased from 791.38 Million in February 2011 to 811.59 Million at the end of March 2011, registering a growth of 2.55 percent. The share of urban subscriber declined to 66.30 percent from 66.36 percent where as share of rural subscribers has increased from 33.64 percent to 33.70 percent. The overall wireless tele-density in India reaches 67.98.

Wireless subscription in urban areas increased from 525.17 million in February 2011 to 538.05 million at the end of March 2011. Rural subscription increased from 266.21 million to 273.54 million. This shows higher growth in rural subscription (2.75 percent) than urban subscription (2.45 percent). The Urban wireless teledensity has increased from 146.72 to 150.06 and rural teledensity increased from 31.90 to 32.75.

Private operators hold 88.01 percent of the wireless market share where as BSNL and MTNL, two PSU operators hold only 11.99 percent market share.

By TelecomLead.com Team

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