Indian telecom industry ushered in the MNP services this year, albeit amidst a bit of apprehension. Across the globe, this concept is implemented by either the recipient led system (adopted widely across the European continent by mid 2000's) or a system led by donor, as is the case with mobile number portability services in India. In US and Canada it is also referred to as WNP (wireless number portability).

While US started its tryst with this mechanism almost 15 years ago , India warmed up to its first service rollout in Haryana back in November last year. The enormous response from the customers gave a fillip to this process and January saw its pan-India rollout. Under the watchful eye of TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India), all the services have steadily started accepting the number portability requests, though few reports of some services refusing these have lately emerged.

According to recent stats, IDEA seems to have emerged a clear winner in the net gains across India, followed by Vodafone and Airtel which fight for a distant second spot. Idea number portability service has also gathered stem due to sleek marketing and dedicated helpline for servicing MNP requests. As of now, 10.5 million users have either obtained or requested for a switch to other service operators and if this trend continues, some major operators might start feeling the heat of neglecting long standing customer grievances.

Even before MNP was introduced, almost two thirds of the total customers in India were using more than one service, primarily due to lack of assistance by their first service provider. MNP has helped resolve these issues as well as use of multiple numbers.Taking a leaf out of major operators losing out in Europe and US to their indifferent service practices, Indian service providers should get their act together.