 has ignored suggestions of TRAI regarding the issues involved in the recently struck deal between Airtel and Loop.){kind=link}
India’s Department of Telecom (DoT) has ignored suggestions of TRAI regarding the issues involved in the recently struck deal between Bharti Airtel and Loop wherein the former has acquired the latter. The problem arises in the fact that the carrier will be taking over current customers of Loop Mobile which will in a way mean that an involuntary change in network will take place for customers.
Now according to TRAI’s observations which it sent to DoT recently, the agreement between the two network providers will result in subscribers automatically getting switched to Airtel’s network, meaning MNP (mobile number portability) occurrences will occur. The very nature of MNP is to give patrons the freedom to choose their desired network.
Hence, TRAI argues that this will break MNP rules which advocate voluntary porting. There’s one more official aspect that comes into the picture. Each mobile phone operator has to pay the government 1 percent of the porting fee it receives from its customers when a number is ported. Since there won’t be any porting on paper, the government will be losing money.
An official from DoT has said to The Economic Times that as this Airtel-Loop deal is an acquisition of one company’s assets by another, by the logic of TRAI’s suggestions, no company will be able to acquire another. Bharti Airtel took over the Mumbai-only network operator back in February in exchange of a reported sum of Rs 700 crore.
The ignorance of TRAI’s suggestions by DoT means good news for the deal, as it will result in a smooth passage for it from here on.