New figures released by the Indian government reveal that the recent introduction of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in the country is contributing to subscriber losses at state-owned operators, BSNL and MTNL. Since MNP was introduced in India on 20 January this year, almost a million mobile users – 933,750 – had ported-out of BSNL by the end of June using the scheme, while only 349,489 had ported in, a net loss of 584,261. It was a similar story at MTNL (which only operates in Delhi and Mumbai): the operator lost 67,198 customers over the same period, but only added 11,593, a net loss of 55,605. According to The Hindu, the subscriber losses at the two firms are coming at a time when privately-owned operators are growing rapidly. It notes that market-leader Bharti Airtel is currently adding almost 2.5 million new subscribers every month, suggesting that, unusually, MNP may be benefiting the larger players. 

The report notes that MNP has accelerated market share declines at the state-owned firms, which are both also in financial trouble. According to the report, in March 2008, BSNL had a market share of 80 percent in fixed-line and 15.64 percent in mobile (24 percent overall), which had fallen to 73.71 percent and 11.53 percent, respectively, by December 2010 (14 percent overall). From reporting a healthy profit of INR3,009 crore in 2007-08, BSNL reported a loss of INR1,822 crore in 2009-10. Meanwhile, MTNL’s mobile market share over the same period had declined from around 10 percent in Delhi and 14 percent in Mumbai to 7 percent and 8 percent, respectively, by December 2010.