The much-awaited mobile number portability (MNP) that became operational from Thursday did not generate much buzz among phone users in city on the first day. It was expected many subscribers disenchanted with their service provider may start switching over from day one. Market sources said no such thing happened.
"A few curious subscribers came to retailers to switch over to other operator, mostly from public-sector BSNL, while many others visited just to inquire what MNP is all about," a retailer from Dharampeth informed. Swapnil Siraskar, a BSNL subscriber who tried to register for MNP, said that he was fed up with the service of existing provider. His friends often complained about call drops and receive message that customer is not in coverage area. "I have already lost business and even friends due to poor service of BSNL. Their billing and customer care too is not proper, so I am switching over," Siraskar added.
Similar was the view of Shripriya Nimbalkar, who said, "My family members are on Vodafone network and I too wanted to join the group. However, as my number was with all my contacts, I could not think of shifting. Now with MNP it is possible."
Experts predict many heavy using groups whose members are on different networks may now move to single network to take advantage of lower tariffs within the network. They said BSNL may be most adversely affected as overall service delivery by the operator in recent times had not been up to the mark. Even BSNL officials admitted they may situation similar to when landline connections were surrendered once cell phones made big inroads.
A senior BSNL official the company had over 2 lakh subscribers and over 270 cell sites in Nagpur district. "It is possible our customers in rural areas where network was not very good may shift," he said. Local Bharti AirTel and Vodafone officials said that their priority would be to stop exodus of existing customers and not attracting customers from other networks, quite opposite to the advertising campaigns the companies have put out.
Service providers could not give how many users have actually registered for switching saying figures would come out only after a week. "The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ( TRAI) has given maximum seven days time for porting to new operator," they said.
"A few curious subscribers came to retailers to switch over to other operator, mostly from public-sector BSNL, while many others visited just to inquire what MNP is all about," a retailer from Dharampeth informed. Swapnil Siraskar, a BSNL subscriber who tried to register for MNP, said that he was fed up with the service of existing provider. His friends often complained about call drops and receive message that customer is not in coverage area. "I have already lost business and even friends due to poor service of BSNL. Their billing and customer care too is not proper, so I am switching over," Siraskar added.
Similar was the view of Shripriya Nimbalkar, who said, "My family members are on Vodafone network and I too wanted to join the group. However, as my number was with all my contacts, I could not think of shifting. Now with MNP it is possible."
Experts predict many heavy using groups whose members are on different networks may now move to single network to take advantage of lower tariffs within the network. They said BSNL may be most adversely affected as overall service delivery by the operator in recent times had not been up to the mark. Even BSNL officials admitted they may situation similar to when landline connections were surrendered once cell phones made big inroads.
A senior BSNL official the company had over 2 lakh subscribers and over 270 cell sites in Nagpur district. "It is possible our customers in rural areas where network was not very good may shift," he said. Local Bharti AirTel and Vodafone officials said that their priority would be to stop exodus of existing customers and not attracting customers from other networks, quite opposite to the advertising campaigns the companies have put out.
Service providers could not give how many users have actually registered for switching saying figures would come out only after a week. "The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ( TRAI) has given maximum seven days time for porting to new operator," they said.
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