The department of telecommunications (DoT) needs to be commended for finally deciding to implement mobile number portability in a phased manner. This had been a long-standing demand of those dedicated to the cause of consumer freedom and greater competition in what is one of India?s most vibrant arenas. Of the 210 million mobile users, a significant fraction would be only too glad to switch service providers so long as they can keep their original numbers. The larger disappointment is that portability is nowhere near being offered to India?s 40 million landline phone subscribers, most of whom remain captive to the state-owned BSNL and MTNL?s services.
While number portability is welcome, efforts to guard the privacy of mobile phone users are still falling woefully short. It is in this context that the proposal to create an integrated directory enquiry system for all mobile numbers poses a new set of problems. The stated aim of this, of course, is to empower consumers. Traditionally, phone directories have been seen as an important public utility. However, there is good reason to treat mobile phones as devices altogether too personal to be made part of such a public information system. Proponents of the directory argue that with a national do-not-call registry now in place, the incidence of pesky tele-marketing intrusions has fallen. Maybe so. But the phenomenon has not been eliminated. Some corporate tele-intruders are shameless enough not to be deterred by such requests for privacy, let alone by the fines that could be imposed on them. So long as the system is based on self-restraint, perhaps little can be done about this. The bigger problem is posed not by tele-marketers, but rogues who prey on the very possibility of gaining direct voice access to specific individuals to perpetrate violations of privacy that cannot be condoned. Unlike landlines, mobile phones are personal. Even children carry mobile phones, and there is a reason that parents do not want their numbers placed in the public domain. Therefore, DoT would do well to go by the 2005 Trai recommendation that any such directory should be put together strictly on the basis of information that is disclosed voluntarily by subscribers. Non-listing should be the default option, and nobody should be tricked by the small print to sign away his or her privacy.
