A year since the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) service was introduced in November last year, only 15.4 million subscribers, i.e. less than 2 % of the total mobile user base, have changed their operators [source]. While this doesn’t translate to happy customers (98% do not want to change operators?), the lower success rate is attributed to roadblocks faced by consumer while applying for MNP.

“Out of a total 20 million requests for porting by users, nearly 5 million have not been carried out. BlackBerry services, a caller ring-back tune, lifetime validity cards, promotional STD or SMS packs are often cited as reasons for rejection of MNP requests.”

Yahoo India Expands video section

Yahoo India earlier launched MoviePlex, a premium video destination allowing users to enjoy licensed, full-length movies for free through the Internet on demand and has now announced new partners for its Video section.

Yahoo! Video will provide original content across multiple genres such as news, entertainment, lifestyle and movies from 35 content producers which include NDTV, Star TV, Shemaroo, Headlines Today, PVR Pictures and Ultra.

“Online video consumption is growing at a rapid pace. However, a large portion of this is user generated content, which is often a rip-off of content. So, a lot of the content available is illegal and pirated” [PR]

Also see: Google Brings Youtube Partner Program to India

7.12m GSM users added in October 2011

GSM operators added 7.12 million new subscribers in October, taking the total GSM subscriber base to 625.41 million. In October, the growth was led by Uninor which added 2.66 million new users, taking its total user-base to 32.31 million at the end of October, 2011 [COAI]

Bharti, Vodafone, Idea seek PM’s intervention

To increase pressure on the government regarding 3G intra-circle roaming (3G ICR) agreements, the promoters of Bharti Airtel Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd, Sunil Mittal and Kumar Mangalam Birla, as well as the global chief executive officer of Vodafone Group Plc, Vittorio Colao, have jointly written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, seeking his urgent intervention in the matter.

They have also said that if the roaming agreements are declared illegal, the government would have to return the money paid by the telcos for the spectrum as well as the money invested in building 3G networks [source].