MNP service providers to push for Rs 120 crore arrears

KOLKATA: Mobile number portability (MNP) service providers Syniverse Technologies India and MNP Interconnection Telecom Solutions India will push to recover an estimated Rs 120 crore from telcos after a court quashed the regulator’s decision to slash a key porting fee by 80% over a year ago.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India cut per port transaction charge to Rs 4 from Rs 19 in January 2018, a move that hurt revenue flows of both MNP service providers, prompting them to move court. The Delhi High Court junked Trai’s regulation on Friday, calling it illegal and unsustainable.

MNP refers to the facility allowing a user to switch telco operators without changing the mobile number. The recipient operator pays a fee to the MNP service provider for processing the request.


Trai secretary Sunil Gupta said Trai “would examine the (court) order before making any comments.”

Syniverse will start the process of recovering arrears retrospectively from February 2018 through talks with Trai and telcos, Himanshu Goel, managing director (India, Middle East & Africa), told ET. A global spokeswoman of iconectiv, US parent of MNP Interconnection, declined comment, saying the company “is in the process of getting information.”

While the service providers are still calculating dues, industry estimates peg them at roughly Rs 120 crore, including fees related to unsuccessful ports from February 2018.

MNP was first offered in India in November 2010. About 412 million subscribers have availed of the facility as of December 2018, Trai said in a consultation paper on February 22, which seeks to review per port transaction and other charges related to MNP.

Last January, Trai said Rs 4 per transaction would be payable only for successful porting. This meant MNP service providers would be unpaid if a porting request wasn’t successful, even after the use of their resources, experts said.
The Delhi High Court criticised Trai’s decision to “limit” the payments to successful requests, calling it “inconsistent” with the definition of the term in the MNP rules, which say such fees are payable to the MNP service provider for processing a request.

“Even where a porting request is unsuccessful, the MNP service provider would necessarily have expended resources in processing it,” the court said. Accordingly, both MNP service providers are likely to include fees linked to failed porting requests in their calculation of arrears.

However, Syniverse’s Goel said “a possible challenge” in recovering the arrears would be “the exit of several fringe carriers” following consolidation in the telecom industry. Recovery would “hinge on how Trai responds to the court verdict and eventually supports the two MNP service providers,” another top industry executive said.

Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio Infocomm and Reliance Communications did not reply to ET’s queries at press time.

Syniverse and MNP Interconnection had approached the telecom department last year, saying the sharp reduction in porting processing fees had led to losses and would compel them to shut services in India on the expiry of their permits in March 2019. However, both companies are said to have applied to DoT for licence renewals.