Karnataka’s mobile users are country’s most dissatisfied

Gayatri Kumar is disenchanted and annoyed. This homemaker from Rajajinagar had fallen for ‘extra talk time’ and ‘free roaming incoming’ sops that Tata Docomo had thrown her way last July. The solemn promises that the mobile service provider made went unkept. Her bills kept soaring despite her limited usage; and to make matters worse, whenever she stepped out of town, the network would die on her.

Ganesh Shankar is equally upset, only that in his case the service provider is BSNL. When the IT professional makes his weekend trips to the interiors, the calls from his colleagues ring clear. Network disturbances, however, leave him frustrated while in metros like Mumbai and Bangalore.

Kumar and Shankar are among millions of consumers in Karnataka who were so dissatisfied with their mobile connections that they opted for another service provider in the last one year. The state has received the maximum number of mobile number portability (MNP) requests in the country, according to a recent report of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

As of January 2012, 34 lakh consumers in Karnataka have made MNP requests. Though Delhi has the highest teledensity at about 23.8 crore, the number of MNP requests registered there (about 15 lakh) is far less than Karnataka, which has a teledensity of about 9.6 crore. Andhra Pradesh comes second in MNP requests with 30 lakh, followed by Gujarat.

The MNP facility was introduced across the country in January last year.

Madhurima Das, an engineering student who switched over from Reliance to Airtel a few months ago, narrates her litany of woes: “I was fed up with the way they would charge me extra for services I had not even subscribed to.” She decided not to put up with the ‘nonsense’ anymore, and promptly made the shift.

Winners, losers
Though no particular company can make tall claims for being in the good books of all, there are some, many subscribers feel, were a ‘lesser’ evil. In Karnataka, net port-in for Idea Cellular is about 4.8 lakh, whereas the same for Vodafone is roughly 6.1 lakh.

Reliance, Tata Docomo and BSNL have been the big losers from MNP in the state.

Reliance could not be reached as mails remained unanswered. Apoorva Mehrotra, business head of Vodafone Karnataka, has reasons to be happy. “We have benefited because of the investments made in the quality of our network and customer service.”

Siva Ganpati, chief operating officer, Idea Cellular, Karnataka, said the company had registered an 8% growth in the state through MNP. “Though there will still be customers who will opt out of Idea, I believe that good network coverage, coupled with good service, has helped us a lot.”

Switching glitches
Vasanta P, an IT professional, is one such customer unhappy with Idea. “I did not receive a UPC code immediately after I sent the SMS request. Instead, I kept getting calls from Idea imploring me not to switch over to some rival network,” she says.

Switching mobile service providers is not a breeze. Amrita, a chartered accountant, faced a similar issue when she wanted to switch from Vodafone to Airtel.

Ganpati contends that though he is aware of a few such cases being reported, the company is making efforts to adhere to TRAI guidelines. To improve the effectiveness of MNP, TRAI recently asked customers not to entertain requests from telcos urging them to cancel porting requests. Companies were asked not to reject requests except on the grounds mentioned under MNP regulation.

An industry expert attributes the phenomenon of high instance of switching network to better consumer awareness in the state.

“Customers in Karnataka are more mature compared with other states in the country. People in rural districts like Malavalli and Maddur are also part of MNP, whereas the scenario in other states is very different. People from villages hardly avail themselves of the facility,” the expert said.