Impact of mobile number portability

We have been hearing for the past few months regarding the introduction of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in India. DoT has now opened the tender for providing MNP services. Names of the winners will be announced in February 2009. So it's unlikely for the service to be active anytime soon. Nevertheless, MNP will be a big boon to Indian mobile users, as it will free them from the tyranny of mobile operators. At the moment, someone who wishes to change his/her mobile operator has to surrender the existing mobile number and get a new one. This has been a big deterrent to those who want to switch operators. Despite initial opposition, the incumbent operators have now agreed to support MNP. If, as expected, MNP is launched in the second half of 2009, the new 2G operators and prospective 3G operators will benefit the most as they seek to create churn from the incumbents. End users will also finally have real choice. However, it must be noted that they will be expected to pay a fee to get the number ported.