In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Kapil Sibal, Minister of Telecommunications and IT, said that Idea Cellular has gained the maximum number of subscribers from other companies via the mobile number portability (MNP) facility. The company has reported a net gain of 1.57 million users as on Nov 15, 2011.
Sibal added that Idea Cellular was followed by Vodafone Essar and Bharti Airtel who reported net gains of 1.20 million and 0.29 million customers, respectively.
Sibal also said that show-cause notices had been issued to companies which had not honoured porting requests.
He said, “So far, the show cause notices have been issued to Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Loop, Reliance Communications and Vodafone Essar.?
The minister said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is also considering taking legal action against the firms which violated provisions of MNP.
“The replies received from the service providers have been examined and in the cases where TRAI concluded that the service providers have violated the provisions of MNP regulations and directions, it is in the process of taking legal action.”
