Mobile number portability

Mobile number portability (MNP) enables mobile telephone users to retain their mobile telephone numbers when changing from one mobile network operator to another.

General overview

Mobile number portability is implemented in different ways across the globe. The International and European standard is for a customer wishing to port his/her number to contact the new network (recipient), which then sends the number portability request (NPR) to the current network (donor). This is known as "recipient-led" porting. The UK and India are the only exceptions to implement the donor-led system. The customer wishing to port his/her number is required to contact the donor to obtain a code (Porting Authorisation Code (PAC) in the UK and Unique Porting Code (UPC) in India) which is then given to the recipient network. The recipient continues the porting process by contacting the donor with porting code. This form of porting is known as "donor-led" and has been criticised by some industry analysts as being inefficient, though prevents MNP scams. It has also been observed that it may act as a customer deterrent as well as allowing the donor an opportunity of "winning back" the customer. This might lead to distortion of competition, especially in the markets with new entrants that are yet to achieve scalability of operation. Based on the recommendations of the Authority on MNP, dated 8 March 2006, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) issued guidelines for MNP implementation in the country on 1st Aug 2008. Subsequently the DoT selected two companies as MNP Service providers each serving in a designated zone in the country. As per the instructions of DoT dated 6 May 2009, a Port Transaction Charge will be charged by the MNP Service Provider from the recipient operator for processing each porting request. The Dipping charge shall be payable by those telecom service providers who utilize the dipping services (query response services) from the MNP Service Provider. The Porting Charge is payable by the subscriber to the recipient operator for porting his mobile number. The port transaction charge, dipping charges and the porting charge shall be governed by the Telecom Tariff Order (TTO)/ determination by TRAI.

Technical details

A significant technical aspect of MNP is related to the routing of calls or mobile messages (SMS, MMS) to a number once it has been ported. There are various flavours of call routing implementation across the globe but the International and European best practice is via the use of a central database (CDB) of ported numbers. A network operator makes copies of the CDB and queries it to find out to which network to send a call. This is also known as All Call Query (ACQ) and is highly efficient and scalable. A majority of the established and upcoming MNP systems across the world are based on this ACQ/CDB method of call routing. One of the very few countries not to use ACQ/CDB is the UK, where once a number has been ported, calls to that number are still routed via the donor network. This is also known as "indirect routing" and is highly inefficient as it is wasteful of transmission and switching capacity. Because of its donor dependent nature, indirect routing also means that if the donor network develops a fault or goes out of business, the customers who have ported numbers out of that network will lose incoming calls to their numbers. The UK telecoms regulator Ofcom completed its extended review of the UK MNP process on 29 November 2007, and mandated that ACQ/CDB be implemented for mobile to mobile ported calls by no later than 1 September 2009.

Prior to March 2008 it took a minimum of 5 working days to port a number in the UK compared to 3.5 working days in Pakistan, 2 hours in USA, as low as 20 minutes in the Republic of Ireland, 3 minutes in Australia and even a matter of seconds in New Zealand. On 17 July 2007, Ofcom released its conclusions from the review of the UK MNP and mandated reduction of porting time to 2 working days effective 1 April 2008. On 29 November 2007, Ofcom completed a round of consultations on further reduction of porting time to 2 hours along with recipient-led porting and mandated that near-instant (no more than 2 hours) recipient-led porting be implemented by no later than 1 September 2009. However, in early 2008 Vodafone UK appealed the Ofcom statement before the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), and on 18 September 2008, CAT ruled in favor of the appeal, returning the matter back to Ofcom for reconsideration. On 8 July 2010, Ofcom issued a final statement, retaining the donor-led process, mandating a two-hour PAC release time, and reducing the porting time from two to one working day.^[1]

In a decentralised model of MNP, a FNR (flexible number register) may be used to manage a database of ported out/ported in numbers for call routing.

Number lookup services

Service providers and carriers who route messages and voice calls to MNP-enabled countries might use home location register (HLR) query services to find out the correct network of a mobile phone number. A number of such services exist, which query the operator's HLR over the SS7 signalling network in order to determine the current network of a specified mobile phone number prior to attempted routing of messaging or voice traffic.

Impact of MNP on mobile operators and customers

MNP map by implementation time

MNP is important for telecoms markets because it removes a bar to switching that keeps those with much equity in the number – in particular many business users – prisoner behind a high switching barrier. The reduction in barriers to switching is of particular benefit to challenger operators against dominant incumbents. Typically, when MNP is implemented in a country, a rise in churn follows.

The caller / customer experience of portability can vary by country. For example, in Portugal any call to a ported mobile number includes an announcement that the number has been ported.^[2] Uptake of porting varies considerably by market: A report by Irish regulator Comreg shows over 3 million Irish mobile numbers ported between 2004 and 2013,^[3] whereas in Portugal, with a much larger population of mobile users, only a little over one million numbers ported in a similar period.

The Americas

Country	Implementation date yyyy.mm.dd	Time to port days	Price	Short notes	References
Argentina	2010.08.17	1-5 days	ARS 5 [4]	The plan started in August 2010	[5]
Brazil	2008.09.01	3	BRL 4	The plan started in March 2007	[6]
Chile	2012.01.16	1	free	The process takes place overnight. Number Portability Clearinghouse service handled by Telcordia Technologies	[7]
Canada	2007.03.14	0	free	MNP procedure takes 10–20 minutes.
Colombia	2011.07.29	3	free		[8]
Dominican Republic	2009.09.30	3–10	free		[9]
Ecuador	2009.10.12	4	free	ASCP handled by Systor, Telconet and JR Electric Supply
Mexico	2008.07.05			Service handled by Telcordia Technologies and Neoris	[10]
Peru	2010.01.01	7-9	free	sim card of the new mobile company that will cost around 15 PEN.
USA	2003.11.24	0	free	MNP procedure takes 2 hours.
Honduras	2014.04.30	0	free	MNP procedure takes 1 hour.
El Salvador	2015.08.24	0	free	The NP Central data base (NPCDB) "NUMLEX" was developed and installed by Mediafon, administrated by Mediafon and „imCard S.A. de C.V.“ . MNP procedure takes up to 8 hours, FNP – 3 days.	[11][12]

Central Asia

Country	Implementation date yyyy.mm.dd	Time to port days	Price	Short notes	References
Republic of Kazakhstan	2015.07.01		Free	The ongoing NPCDB implementation, the NP Central data base (NPCDB) "NUMLEX" was developed and installed by Mediafon, to be administrated by national NPCDB Administrator.

Asia Pacific

Country	Implementation date YYYY.MM.DD	Time to port days	Price	Short notes	References
Australia	2001.09.25	0	free	Previously prefixes 04x1, 04x2, 04x3 referred to Optus 04x4, 04x5 and 04x6 referred to Vodafone 043x, referred to Vodafone Hutchison Australia formally known as Hutchison 3G Australia. 04x7, 04x8, 04x9 and 0410x referred to Telstra Some carriers may a charge fee for porting out. MNP takes around 10 to 20 minutes	[13]
Hong Kong	1999.03.01	2	free	Service handled by Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA). In the network, you may be charged unexpectedly for a call to a mobile that has been ported form a different network.	[14]
India	2011.01.20	7	₹19	Number portability is allowed within a circle, nationwide or intra-circle. The customer should have completed a period of 90 days (from the date of activation of the mobile connection) with the current operator, to be eligible for porting to another operator. Although the duration for the process is 7 days for total process but the time a number is deactivated for portability is 3–4 days only.	[15] [16] [17]
Maldives	2016.03.10	2	MVR 200	Number portability is allowed within a circle. The customer should have completed a period of 90 days (from the date of activation of the mobile connection) with the current operator and any outstanding bills should be cleared, to be eligible for porting to another operator. Although the duration for the process is 2 days for total process but the time a number is deactivated for portability is 2 hours only.	[18] [19] [20]
Japan	2006.10.24	1	free	[21]	[22]
New Zealand	2007				[23]
Malaysia	2008.10.01	1	free	1 day is a minimum time necessary for porting. Number Portability Clearinghouse service handled by Telcordia Technologies	[24][25][26][27]
Pakistan	2007.03.23	4	free	Customers can port between prepaid and postpaid options. On porting IN, the recipient company provides, free credit and airtime. The service is handled by Pakistan MNP Database (Guarantee) Limited,[28] the joint venture of all the cellular companies of Pakistan.
Singapore	2008.06.13	1	free	Customers are not able to port between prepay and post pay options. Vendor for database installation is Syniverse Technologies	[29]
South Korea	2004				[30]
Taiwan	2005.10.13	3	NTD 240
Thailand	2010.12.15	3	free	Number Portability Clearinghouse service is handled by Telcordia Technologies. 3 days can be just working days.

Europe

Country	Implementation date yyyy.mm.dd	Time to port days	Price	Short notes	References
Albania	2010.12.22	TBA	TBA	Agreement signed on 2010-12-22 between AKEP (Authority of Electronic and Postal Communications) and the service handling company "INFOSOFT SYSTEMS sh.a.". Service not implemented yet.	[31]
Armenia	2014.04.01
Austria	2004.10.16	3	EUR 15
Azerbaijan	2014.02.01	3	Free
Belarus	2012.02.01	1	Free
Belgium	2002.10.01	2	Free	The central solution CRDC has been re-implemented several times. First time it was implemented by Telcordia Technologies US, second time by Cap Gemini Sweden and Belgium, third time by Porthus Belgium. Access to DB: setup fee : €11 000, annual fee: €3000. Before, the prefixes 047x was for Proximus phones, 048x for Base and 049x for Mobistar
Bulgaria	2008.04.11	2	EUR 2.56
Croatia	2006.10.01	5		5 days is maximum possible period necessary for porting a number. Service handled by HAKOM.
Cyprus	2004.07.??	2	Free[32]
Czech Republic	2006.01.15	4		Before 2013-09-01 it was 30 days to transfer, now just 4 days	[33]
Denmark	2001.07.??	1	DKK 0-29	The central solutions is called OCH - Operators Clearing House. Before 2009 it was 30–60 days to transfer number, now just 1 day	[34]
Estonia	2005.01.01	7
Finland	2003.07.25	5	Free	Handled by the company Numpac	[35]
France	2003.06.30	3	Free	Heavily improved since November 2011 with a 3-days maximum lead time (was taking 2 months in most cases before 2007, then 10 days)[36]	[37]
Georgia	2011				[38]
Germany	2002.11.01	6	EUR 25	The average price charged is about €25. The exact amount depends on the old provider. A price limit of €30.72 was set by the Bundesnetzagentur.[39]	[40]
Greece	2003.09.??	3	Free	Service handled by Telcordia Technologies
Hungary	2004.05.01	8	Free
Iceland	2004.10.01	10	Free	10 days is maximum possible period. Service handled by Telcordia Technologies
Ireland	2003.07.25	0	Free	Volumes of ported mobile numbers are reported in the Comreg quarterly report[3]
Italy	2002.04.01	1	free (1 to 1.6 € if the subscriber wants to transfer his prepaid credit to the new carrier)	The maximum time for the procedure is 24 working hours. In case of delay up to 3 working days no refund is given, if the delay is longer than 3 days user receive a refund of 2.5 € for each day of delay, start counting from day 1.
Latvia	2007.??.??	10	Free
Lithuania	2004.01.01	28		Service handled by Telcordia Technologies. 28 days is a maximum possible period.
Luxembourg	2005.02.01	1		Managed by the G.I.E Telcom E.I.G. operator group and developed, installed and operated by Systor Trondheim AS.
Macedonia	2008.09.01			The reference database was developed, installed and is operated by Seavus Group.
Malta	2005.07.31	0		4 hours is a period necessary to port a number.
Moldova	2013.07.01	5-30	Free	Service handled by Mediafon. The NP Central data base (NPCDB) "NUMLEX" was developed, installed and supported by Mediafon, administrated by national NPCDB Administrator "NP Base".	[41]
Netherlands	1999.04.??	3			[42]
Norway	2001.04.01	5	NOK 0 - 200	Administrated by the National Reference Database (NRDB). The reference database was developed, installed and is operated by Systor Trondheim AS.
Poland	2006.02.??		Free	To be administrated by the National Central Database (PLI-CBD) run by Office of Electronic Communications (UKE). 30-day max porting time is to be reduced to 1 day.
Portugal	2002.01.01	5-10	Free[43]	Operated by Portabil S.A. Solution implemented by Systor Trondheim AS of Norway.
Romania	2008.10.21	3[44]	Free	Developed by UTI Systems based on the Porthus implementation	[45]
Russia	2013.12.01	8[46]	RUR 0-100[47][48]	The NP Central data base (NPCDB) "NUMLEX" was developed and installed by Mediafon, administrated by national NPCDB Administrator. If the mobile operator does not have time to port a phone number at 7 days, all services are free for subscriber.
Slovakia	2004.05.01	4	EUR 5	Price is different for each operator. Portation request can by set max 2 months into the future.
Slovenia	2005.12.31	5	EUR 5	5 EUR is a maximum possible price
Spain	2000.10.??	2	Free[49]	Central database managed through the AOPM (Asociación de Operadores para la Portabilidad Móvil).
Sweden	2001.09.01	5-6[50][51]	Free	The largest operators formed independent company, SNPAC AB, to procure central database (CRDB) solution. Implementation of CRDB is carried out by Cap Gemini & Oracle.
Switzerland	2000.03.??	5	Free[52]
Turkey	2008.11.09	6	Free	AVEA and Vodafone hired Gantek to implement central database (CRDB) solution and donated it to Turkish Telecommunications Regulatory Authority. Number Portability Clearinghouse service handled by Telcordia Technologies
Ukraine	TBA	TBA	TBA	The services should have been introduced on 1 January 2011 but because of lack of interest of operators to bid on the tender to select the administrator of the database on 1 July 2014 introduction was again postponed indefinitely.[53]
United Kingdom	1999.01.??	1	Free	Users in the United Kingdom are required to use a Porting Authorisation Code (PAC)[54]	[55]

Middle East and Africa

Country	Implementation date yyyy.mm.dd	Time to port days	Price	Short notes	References
Egypt	2008.04.??	up to 15 days, can be cancelled for any dues from previous operator	Free, was charging 75 EGP before	NPC serves the centralized administrative and provisioning role of MNP. Number Portability Clearhouse is handled by Telcordia Technologies, where Giza Systems is the system integrator. Cannot revert back to existing operator before 1 year of service to new operator. Porting to another operator, line should be at least 1 year old.
Ghana	2011.07.07	typically 5-10 min., max 24 hours	Free	Central system operated by Porting Access Ghana, under authorisation from National Communications Authority
Jordan	2010				[23]
Israel	2007.12.03	up-to 30 minutes	Free	Service includes landline as well as mobile numbers	[56]
Kenya	2011				[57]
Kuwait	2013.06.15	1	Free	The Ministry of Telecommunications has launched the service on 2013-06-15. The project manager is the National Technology Enterprises Company www.ntec.com.kw
Nigeria	2013.04.22	2	Free	NCC (Nigerian Communications Commission) has adopted a phased approach to the launch of Mobile Number Portability service in Nigeria. The process to port to CDMA networks will begin as soon as the GSM porting process is completed and launched. Mobile Number Portability will initially be available among the GSM mobile operators: MTN, GLOBACOM, ETISALAT, and AIRTEL. Number Portability Clearinghouse service handled by Telcordia Technologies	[58]
Oman	2006.08.26			Implemented as a decentralized solution by Porthus for Nawras, and by Gulf Business Machines/Telcordia for Oman Mobile.
Saudi Arabia	2006.07.08		Free	Managed by the Centralized Clearinghouse Approach, through the NPC (Number Portability Clearinghouse), a product of Telcordia Technologies. The implementer and system integrator is Giza Arabia.
Bahrain	2011.07.08		Free	Managed by the Systor Cntral System.
South Africa	2006.11.10			The three operators, Vodacom SA, MTN SA, and Cell C, formed an independent company for the implementation and management of the central solution. After delays, the implementation of this solution was awarded to local company Saab Grintek teamed up with Telcordia Technologies.
Tunisian Republic				The ongoing NPCDB implementation, the NP Central data base (NPCDB) "NUMLEX" was developed and installed by Mediafon, to be administrated by national NPCDB Administrator.
Senegal	2015.09.01	MNP goes nearly online, max -24 hours	Free	The NP Central data base (NPCDB) "NUMLEX" was developed and installed by Mediafon, administrated by Mediafon and Comet Afrique Telecoms . Only MNP.

See also

• Local number portability
• Porting Authorisation Code

References

1. Ofcom. "Changes to the Mobile Number Porting Process, Final Statement", London, 8 July 2010. Retrieved on 6 May 2013
2. http://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=39090
3. http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg1356.pdf
4. "Mobile Portability in Argentina". AFTIC.gob.ar (in Spanish). AFTIC. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
5. Argentina
6. Brazil
7. Chile
8. Colombia
9. Dominican Republic
10. Mexico
11. http://www.siget.gob.sv/index.php/novedades/noticias/1-noticias-ciudadano/2507-la-portabilidad-numerica-una-historia-de-exito-otro-compromiso-cumplido
12. http://www.presidencia.gob.sv/portabilidad-numerica-otro-compromiso-cumplido-por-el-presidente-sanchez-ceren/
13. Australia
14. Hong Kong
15. TRAI
16. MNP India
17. MNP India , Online Status of Porting Request
18. Maldives introduces mobile number portability
19. Maldives launches mobile number portability
20. Customer Guide for availing the facility of Mobile Number Portability (MNP)
21. Softbank MNP Instructions
22. Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in Japan
23. TelQTest Wiki. MNP map by implementation date
24. Maxis Telecommunication MNP FAQ
25. Celcom Telecommunication MNP FAQ
26. Switch to DiGi FAQ
27. MNP Malaysia-launched Nationwide in October
28. http://pmdpk.com
29. It’s confirmed – Singapore has incomplete number portability
31. Balkanweb News Agency
32. "Change your service to Lemontel". Lemontel.com.cy. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
33. Czech Republic
34. Nummerflytning - Telia
35. Suomen numerot NUMPAC Oy: Numpac in English
36. "Code RIO (French)". CodeRIO.fr.
37. (French) 3 days maximum time-to-port Arcep, November 2011
38. TelQTest Wiki. MNP by implementation time map
39. "Rufnummer Mitnehmen (German)". rufnummermitnehmen.com.
40. Germany
42. EEC report MNP in Europe
43. "ANACOM - Table of prices (reported up to the second half of 2012)". Anacom.pt. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
44. "Portabilitate". Portabilitate.ro. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
45. Romania
46. "Постановление Правительства Российской Федерации от 15 июля 2013 г. N 599 "О внесении изменений в Правила оказания услуг подвижной связи"". Российская Газета.
47. "Проект Федерального закона Российской Федерации "О внесении изменений в Федеральный Закон ""О связи""". Российская Газета.
48. "Mobile Number Portability in Russia Guidelines (English)". MobileNumberPortability.ru.
49. "Mobile Number Portability in Spain Guidelines (Spanish)". portabilidadmovil.es.
50. "Telenor - Kundservice - Nummerflytt". Telenor.se. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
51. "Byt till Telia - Mobil telefoni - Privat - Telia.se". Tewss.telia.se. 2013-04-04. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
52. "Switching To Orange - Orange Communications SA/AG". .orange.ch. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
53. Introduction of MNP service postponed again, new tender to select administrator could be announced, Interfax-Ukraine (1 July 2014)
54. "PAC Codes". PACcodes.co.uk.
55. United Kingdom
56. Phone Number Portability and Its Implementation in Telephone Networks in Israel – FAQ. Israel Ministry of Communications (Hebrew)
57. TelQTest Wiki. MNP map by implementation time
58. Mobile Number Portability FAQ - Nigerian Communications Commission