Telecom consumers may have to face minor disruptions as a result of the ongoing consolidation in the sector. Mobile users of Vodafone, Idea, Reliance Communications, Aircel, Telenor and MTS may have to opt for a new tariff plan once their respective operators complete the ongoing merger process. While Vodafone and Idea are merging their operations, Telenor has sold its operations to Airtel. Reliance Communictions, Aircel and MTS are undergoing a three-way merger.
Once these mergers are completed, the operators may pull back some of the tariff plans from the market. For example, if both Aircel and RCom offer similar tariff plans in Delhi, after the merger, one of these plans will be withdrawn. In such a scenario, the users on that plan will have to opt for another tariff plan.
“Operators generally inform users 30 days in advance if there is any change in tariff plan; so that should give enough time for them to migrate to the new network,” said an industry representative.
There is unlikely to be any major disruption as a result of the network reconfiguration that happens in any merger. For example, if Vodafone and Idea Cellular both have towers in the same location, chances are that one will be switched off. Users who were earlier being served by that tower will be shifted to the other functional tower.
“This process, though, happens seamlessly, may impact services for a few hours. Therefore, such hand-overs are usually done late night or early morning in order to cause minimum disruption,” said a network specialist.
Telecom experts said consumers are generally not affected by mergers as otherwise users will port out to a new operator. “It is like how a user, while roaming from one country to another, hardly sees any difference as far as connectivity is concerned. Similarly, if in a merger process, users of a particular operator have to be migrated to another operator’s network, it is done seamlessly,” said a senior executive of a telecom operator.
Most operators now have deployed what is technically called a Self-Organizing Network (SON). SON is an automation technology designed to make the planning, configuration, management and optimisation of mobile networks simpler and faster.
“The only exception could be in the legacy 2G networks where such technology may not be available. But even there operators make sure engineers are present on such locations to make the transition painless,” said a network engineer.