Airtel highest gainer, Tata Docomo biggest loser of MNP

NEW DELHI, INDIA: With 2.03 million requests for mobile number porting in June alone, companies like Tata Docomo are getting the hardest hit of the newly introduced mobile number portability (MNP) as per the study by Simplify360.

Out of all the people expressing or who have switched to other networks, 26 percent of the customers belong to Tata Docomo. However, only 4 percent of people are willing to switch to Tata Docomo. As a result Tata Docomo has a net loss of 22 percent of those switching networks using MNP.

According to the study by Simplify360, maximum percentage of customers are switching from Vodafone to other networks, but unlike Tata Docomo, they have higher numbers of customers porting to Vodafone from other network. Among all the customers switching from one provider to another using MNP, 27 percent of them are from Vodafone while Tata Docomo has 26 percent share of the total switchers.

On the other hand, Airtel is the highest gainer of the MNP. One in every five consumer planning to switch to other network indicated that they are likely to switch to Airtel.

Poor customer service is the main reason cited by customers for switching from one network to the other. And, 43 percent of the customers analyzed indicates that they switch mainly because of poor customer service. This includes delayed and sometimes no response from customer care executives.

Some interesting insights:

* Tata Docomo has the highest churn rate of 5.7 percent followed by Vodafone. The average churn rate of the industry is 2.7 percent.

* Tata Docomo is the biggest loser in the MNP. While only 4 percent of the customers indicated their willingness to be ported to Tata Docomo, 26 percent of them indicated their plan to leave the network. As a result Tata Docomo has a net loss of 22 percent.

* Customer Service followed by Quality of Service and Value for money are the top three reasons why customers leave a service provider.

* Initiatives of telecom operators in providing assistance to victims in the flood-hit Uttarakhand was appreciated by customers.