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Alok's Posts / Startup

MNP – Mera Number Pehelwan !

In the beginning of 2001, contests2win began pioneering the concept of Mobile Marketing Via SMS, via our business Mobile2win (China and India).

While In China the operators understood the concept and were very supportive and gave us a short-code, operators in India were defiant.

I remember the first pitch to Airtel in which I explained that if a brand promoted a massive contest on its TV ads via an sms trigger, the revenues of the SMS would accrue to the Telco and hence it was a great deal. We were in fact entitled to a large revenue share on that revenue.

What I heard shocked me:

Airtel said that the consumers BELONGED to them and hence forget revenue sharing, we should even pay a portion of the BRAND FEES to Airtel, because we were RENTING their consumers!

Of course all that changed when we got Indian Idol to the table and made sure that all VAS providers were compensated.

On the eve of the MNP – Mobile Number Portability roll out, I am so pleased to see how the tables have turned!!

 

NOW, THE CONSUMER WILL OWN THE NUMBER AND DECIDE ON THE OPERATOR.

What this means is very significant:

– As consumers who pay a fees for service, our database, our profile and hence our number is NOT FOR SALE. Hence, its imperative that we are compensated directly for trading of our profiles.

– The Mobile Portability needs to immediately extend to Land Line Portability. I have a migraine with MTNL in my house. I want to change them now.

– The concept of Portability needs to really be applied to all the services I pay for. This should apply for my Electricity connections, Gas Connections and any other service where I the consumer have the option to switch from Service providers, while NOT losing my identity.

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2 Comments

  1. Very true Alok.

  2. Last snippet I saw in a news stream said the number portability has been postponed to Dec. I have been loosely tracking this story for the past 6 months and have watched with bemusement the shifting dates. Telcos must be shitting bricks. 🙂

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