Source: TeleGeography.

Source: TeleGeography.

Argentina will launch the mobile number portability system in March this year. Mobile operator Personal has already launched an informative campaign on its website instructing users how to use the new service. Argentina approved the introduction of the number portability system in August 2010, but the system launch has been delayed until now. The number portabil­ity service will be available for individual and business customers across Argentina, using either postpaid or prepay mobile services. Customers will be able to port their number free of charge for the first time. Further number portings will be charged, Infobae reports. Customers who port their number will be required to remain in the recipient operator's network for a minimum of 60 days.

Source: Telecom Paper.

­Bahrain has launched Mobile Number Portability between the country's four mobile networks. Number portability for landlines will be offered from October.

The country's implementation of Mnp is 'recipient-led', where subscribers only need to contact the new operator. In addition, once a subscriber decides to move, the old operator may not directly contact the subscriber, with the purpose of trying to convince the subscriber to return, for a period of 3 months.

During the press conference, TRA Chairman Dr. Mohammed Al Amer said, "we expect the percentage of participants wishing to transfer their numbers up to 20% of the total number of mobile subscribers in the Kingdom of Bahrain."

SystorIntereurope Systems is managing the Number Portability Central System, which is a key component of the process responsible for coordinating the exchange of messages between Licensed Operators as well as maintaining the authoritative database of ported numbers and performance metrics of all Licensed Operators. 

The Number Portability central system is being hosted by the Bahrain Internet Exchange (BIX), which facilitates the ease of access by all operators.

Source: Cellular News

The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) has confirmed that mobile number portability (MNP) was successfully implemented in the country on 1 April 2011, making Kenya the 63rd nation to allow mobile phone users to retain their existing phone numbers when changing service providers. The long-awaited introduction of MNP follows a series of extensive public consultations that took place between 2004 and 2008. In March 2010 Netherlands-based Porting Access was awarded a contract to supply, install, commission and manage the country’s MNP services; those wishing to switch operators while retaining their numbers will pay a one-off fee of KES199.80 (USD2.36). However, Airtel Kenya, the country's second largest cellco by subscribers, has declared its intention to waive the MNP fee for anyone porting their number to its network. Rene Meza, managing director of Airtel Kenya, commented: 'The successful rollout of MNP is a great boost for Kenya's image in the global arena as it confirms the country's status as a technologically savvy nation, especially in the developing world'. Bob Collymore, CEO of market leader Safaricom, commented: 'We are not afraid to lose customers. Other networks have always been after Safaricom subscribers anyway. It is good that consumers now have a choice, I think each network should be left to deal with MNP in its own way'.

CCK director general Charles Njoroge commented: 'The implementation of number portability is expected to deepen the level of competition in the mobile telecommunications market and enhance consumer choice. In the new dispensation, service providers who do not pay attention to quality and good customer service may find it hard to survive. The operators have carried out the necessary tests and we expect the services to kick off without major hitches. There might be a few teething problems at the beginning, but this should be sorted out within the shortest time possible'.

According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, in November 2004 the CCK announced that MNP would be introduced on 1 July 2005. The deadline was later pushed back, and in 2007 MNP was postponed indefinitely after the operators complained about the high costs involved in setting up the system. In April 2010 the CCK announced that the country’s four cellcos – Safaricom, Airtel (then Zain), Orange and Essar – would be required to start offering MNP from July that year, a date which was subsequently put back a further six months, to 31 December. In December MNP was delayed once again, until 1 April 2011.

Source: TeleGeography

Ghana’s National Communications Authority (NCA) is gearing up for the implementation of mobile number portability (MNP) from 1 July 2011, to give mobile users the option of switching service providers for the first time. It is understood the NCA has completed more than 90% of the necessary technical groundwork needed to facilitate MNP, with its director of regulatory and administration affairs, Joshua Peprah, confirming that ‘all is set for the take off of the MNP on 1 July’.

Mr Peprah went on to say that the regulator has selected a privately owned joint-venture partnership, Porting Access Ghana (PAG), to establish a central database of all ported numbers and also to facilitate porting within 24 hours. It will cost the user around GHC4 (USD2.50) to port his or her number to the new network provider via PAG’s system. It is hoped the introduction of number porting will increase competition and drive down prices as cellcos roll out new offers and ‘freebies’ in a bid to convince customers to stay with them when MNP takes off.

Source: TeleGeography

Bulgarian telecoms regulator the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) has announced that it will fine the country's three mobile operators - MobilTel, Cosmo Bulgaria (GloBul) and Vivacom (formerly Bulgarian Telephone Company, BTC) - a total of BGL1.5 million (USD1.06 million) for breaking mobile number portability (MNP) rules.

The cellcos have confirmed they will most probably appeal against the decision in the Supreme Administrative Court. In 2010 the trio were fined the same amount following over 40 customer complaints about number portability.

Source: TeleGeography

The Telecoms Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has revealed that more than 1.7 million subscribers have opted to change their provider while keeping the same number since the introduction of mobile number portability (MNP).

As previously reported by CommsUpdate, the service was initially introduced only in the Haryana circle in November last year, before being extended nationwide on 20 January 2011. The regulator has claimed that of the total requests to port numbers, around 229,000 came from the Haryana circle, while of the regions where it has been more recently introduced Gujarat recorded the highest number of requests, approximately 167,000.

Source: TeleGeography

The UAE’s two telecoms operators, Etisalat and Du, will offer full number portability (NP) by the end of March 2011, according to a report by Reuters, which cites the UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA). The regulator hopes that the service, which allows subscribers to retain their telephone number when they switch service provider, will encourage competition in a market where – according to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database – wireless penetration is as high as 240%.

‘It will stimulate competition between the two operators because operators will try to hold onto their customers,’ commented Mohamed Al Ghanim, director general of the TRA, at a conference in Abu Dhabi. ‘Both operators will be in readiness by the end of this month. Then the TRA will test it,’ he added. Ghanim also stated that infrastructure sharing between Etisalat and Du will ‘hopefully’ happen in 2011, with both companies currently working towards solving technical issues. He also ruled out issuing a third licence in the UAE, stating that ‘the market cannot take [another player]’.

Source: TeleGeography

Mobile Number Portability (MNP) has finally, after many delays, been launched across India today. The launch of the nationwide service was staged by Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh making an inaugural call to Shri Kapil Sibal, the Union Minister of Communications & IT from a ported number.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Kapil Sibal said that though India has introduced Mobile Number Portability relatively late compared other developed countries but at the same time it has done so by adopting latest technologies and methodology. He further stated that seeing the size of the country, number of subscribers & their growth rate and the number of operators per Licensed Service Area, there will be hardly any country with a network of so much complexity where MNP has been implemented.

According to Bloomberg, mobile number portability (MNP) will be introduced in Serbia in March 2011, in compliance with European Union standards. Following regulatory changes this year and technical preparations that should be completed in February, an estimated 9.9 million mobile-phone users will be able to switch from one operator to another without changing their numbers, Telecommunications Minister Jasna Matic is quoted as saying. ‘Number portability is a key element of true competition because many users are reluctant to change operators if that requires changing numbers’, Matic said in a statement. She declined to estimate the likely impact on rates or on the size of the overall market, but said at least 10% of users are likely to change operators next year.

The decision has been met with varying degrees of enthusiasm amongst the country’s three wireless network operators. MT:S, the mobile arm of state-owned fixed line incumbent Telekom Srbija, which claimed a 59.2% share of the subscriber base at the end of September, said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg that it accepted the change, while rival network operator Mobilkom Serbia (VIP Mobile) welcomed the move, saying it is ready to meet all technical conditions. Telenor Serbia meanwhile was quoted as saying that the change ‘should be postponed to early June 2011,’ to allow more time for technical preparation, including setting up a central database station for routing ported numbers between operators.

Source: TeleGeography

­India started the long-delayed rollout of mobile number portability (MNP) as the service was launched in Rohtak, Haryana by Shri Kapil Sibal, the Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology.Speaking on the occasion Shri Sibal announced that this service will be expanded to the entire country on January 20th, 2011. As continued efforts of the Government to increase competition in the market and to provide wider choice to customer, Mobile Number Portability will be an important step.

The networks in all the remaining 21 Licensed Service Areas have started migration for working in the MNP environment. For orderly technical migration of complex interconnected networks, each of the remaining service areas will be migrated one by one on alternate days. This will enable simultaneous validation of technical parameters and removal of any problems arising from migration activity to ensure successful and smooth migration of a service area. Migration activities will not take place during the festival season at the end of December, 2010.The Department of Telecommunications Secretary, Shri R. Chandrashekhar said on the occasion that this facility will intensify the competition among service providers both in respect of quantity of services and quality of service as well as in terms of tariff.

The DoT guidelines created geographical division of the country into two Number Portability Zones, each consisting of 11 licensed service areas. Subsequently, one operator in each zone was selected. Syniverse Technologies was granted licence for operating in Northern and Western India and MNP Interconnection Telecom Solutions was granted licence for Eastern and Southern India.According to a Nielsen survey last year, it seems that close to one in five (18%) Indian mobile phone subscribers could change their mobile operator when Mobile Number Portability is introduced into the market.

Source: Cellular News

Ofcom has announced that from next year mobile subscribers will be able to transfer their number to a new operator in just one working day, rather than the two days it takes currently. The new regulation will come into force on 11 April 2011. Ofcom CEO Ed Richards said: ‘Ensuring consumers can switch between communications providers by removing unnecessary barriers is one of Ofcom's priorities for 2010/11. Being able to switch quickly and easily between mobile providers is an important part of healthy and effective competition.’ In 1999 customers had to wait 25 days to switch their number to a new provider.

Source: TeleGeography

Following years of delay, Kenyan mobile phone users will be able to switch networks without changing their numbers by the end of the year, following the award of a licence to manage the service. Mobile number portability (MNP) has long been a contentious issue in Kenya, and it was not until March 2010 that Porting Access of the Netherlands was awarded a contract to supply, install, commission, and manage MNP services. At the licence handing over ceremony this week, the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) director-general Charles Njoroge commented: ‘This award is expected to bolster the level of competition in the mobile telecommunications market to the benefit of consumers’.

According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, in November 2004 the CCK announced that MNP would be introduced on 1 July 2005. The deadline was later pushed back, and in 2007 MNP was postponed indefinitely after operators complained about the high costs involved in setting up the system. In April 2010 the CCK announced that the country’s four cellcos - Safaricom, Zain, Orange and Essar - would be required to start offering MNP from July this year, a date which has since been put back a further six months. Those wishing to switch operators while retaining their numbers will pay a one-off fee of KES199.80.

Source: TeleGeography

Data from the Telecommunications Carriers’ Forum shows that 102,000 wireless subscribers have switched operators but kept the same phone number since August 2009. 2degrees has enjoyed the largest gain, with 65,000 users porting their number to the newcomer, 80% of which moved from Vodafone. For its part Vodafone has unveiled a new cut-price plan, offering 200 minutes of landline and mobile calls for NZD12 (USD8.5) per month. However, the company’s head of corporate communications Paul Brislen says the new tariff is not a reaction to the mobile number portability (MNP) figures. Vodafone also revealed that it is investing NZD500 million in extending its 3G network to reach 97% of the population.

Source: TeleGeography.

Kenya’s telecoms regulator the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) has announced that the country’s four cellcos – Safaricom, Zain, Econet and Orange – will be required to start offering mobile number portability (MNP) from July. The move marks the beginning of the end of a protracted and repeatedly delayed process. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, in November 2004 the CCK announced that MNP would be introduced as early as 1 July 2005. The deadline was later pushed back, however, and in 2007 MNP was postponed indefinitely, with operators complaining about the high costs involved with setting up the system. The CCK launched a public consultation on MNP in November 2008, saying it hoped to have number portability implemented by September 2009, although this too was delayed.

Source: TeleGeography.

The introduction of mobile number portability (MNP) in India looks set to face further delays, according to the Economic Times, on the back of security concerns raised by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). It is understood that the ministry’s worries over the MNP proposals have forced the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to defer its earlier approval of MNP Interconnection Solution as one of the two companies selected by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to oversee the introduction of the service. Concerns have been raised over the ownership structure of MNP Interconnection Solutions, with the MHA first voicing its objections in December 2009, with the ministry claiming that a number of shareholders in the company had no experience in running telecom services.

Nonetheless, in a separate but related report by Dow Jones Newswires, it was noted that Andimuthu Raja, the Indian communications minister, said that, even with the expected delays, MNP should be launched by the first week of May. The introduction of MNP has seen a number of delays, having first been scheduled for implementation by 31 December 2009 in the cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai, as well as in the Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu circles. This deadline was subsequently pushed back to 31 March 2010, but again this now looks unlikely to be met.

Source: TeleGeography

Ecuadorian mobile telephony operators had received 29,092 requests for mobile number portability (MNP) by 25 January 2010, following the service’s introduction on 12 October 2009, the country's telecoms supervisory body Suptel said in a statement, reported by BNamericas. 15,855 users requested to have their number ported from Porta to Movistar, while 8,596 asked to port their numbers from Movistar to Porta. The rest were to and from state-owned Alegro PCS, which had a net loss of 25 ports.

Source: TeleGeography

A total of 4.2 million people requested number portability (NP) in Brazil last year, according to data published by the body managing number portability in the country, ABR Telecom. The agency also reported that of the total, 3.2 million people actually completed their switch to a new provider – equivalent to 1.56% of the 210 million fixed and mobile lines in the country. ABR Telecom said that 2.28 million lines were mobile phones and around one million were fixed line connections. NP began to be introduced in Brazil in September 2008, and it was available throughout the country by March 2009. To date, a total of 4.52 million people have requested to switch, of whom 3.48 million have been successfully ported.

Source: TeleGeography

Latvia’s three largest mobile network operators by subscribers – Tele2 (Latvia), Latvijas Mobilais Telefons (LMT) and Bite Latvia – have agreed to reduce the time taken to port mobile numbers, Delfi.lv reports. It is understood that the three cellcos, in line with instructions issued by the European Commission, will speed up the number porting process from the ten days it currently takes to just five from 1 March 2010.

‘We are pleased with the agreement, but we believe that operators are now technically ready to provide number portability within one day. Therefore...we argued for the need to reduce the time of transfer rates to one day. Reducing the transfer time will favourably influence the number of choices for mobile users,’ said Zita Zilgalve, director of Bite Latvia. According to European Commission directives, prior to 11 May 2011 mobile number portability timeframes should be reduced to no longer than one day in all eurozone countries.

India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has confirmed that the launch of mobile number portability (MNP) has been delayed until the end of March 2010, the Economic Times reports. A statement from the ministry of communications confirmed the delay, noting that ‘the government has now decided to implement it [MNP] in whole of the country in one go by 31 March 2010.’ Under the original plans for the implementation of the service wireless subscribers in Category A circles and Metros were expected to be offered MNP from the beginning of January, with the rest of the country pencilled in to gain access to the service from 1 April. It is understood that the main reason for the pushing back of the deadline is that a number of telcos have informed the DoT that they need more time for upgrading their systems.

Further delays could be on the cards however, with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) having also raised concerns over the identity of shareholders of MNP Interconnection Telecom Solutions India, which has been selected to administer the service in the southern and eastern states. As reported by CommsUpdate last month the MHA claims that a number of shareholders in the company had no experience in running telecom services, whilst the ministry has also called on the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to review the clearance it has granted the company due to its presence in Pakistan.

Source: TeleGeography

Citing state news service Agencia Andina, BNamericas reports that mobile number portability (MNP) was officially launched in Peru on 1 January. The service has run into controversy already, however, as although it is being advertised as 'free', users have to pay PEN15 (USD5.2) for a new SIM card from their new operator. Consumer association Aspec has called on the regulator Osiptel to provide clearer information.

Source: TeleGeography

India’s two state-owned operators, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), have announced that they will not meet the deadline for the implementation of mobile number portability (MNP). According to the Economic Times, both claim they have been unable to introduce the necessary upgrades to their systems to allow for number portability; MTNL says its delay stems from the amount of time and money needed to upgrade its legacy network, while BSNL has claimed it has been hindered by a number of factors ranging from the lack of a draft interconnect agreement to issues regarding tariffs for off-net and on-net calls, as its network will not support differential charging.

At a recent meeting chaired by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) secretary regarding MNP, both BSNL and MTNL revealed that they would not be ready to offer the service before April 2010. As a result the regulator has inaugurated a coordination committee with both operators, alongside MNP Interconnection Telecom Services India and Syniverse, the two companies picked to run the country’s MNP services. The government had previously set a 31 December deadline for implementing the MNP regime for the Metro and Category A circles, with the remaining regions to come online by June 2010.

Source: TeleGeography

Brazil’s telecoms standards coordinator ABR Telecom says that as at 30 November 2009 the total number of number portability requests received from customers reached 3.95 million. Of the total, around 2.58 million were for mobile numbers and 1.36 million for fixed line connections. Moreover, the standards agency confirmed that 3.05 million requests have been completed, the majority of which – 69% - are for mobile lines. Brazil opened the door for number portability when it implemented a partial NP system in September 2008. It has now been available nationwide since 2 March 2009 to than 193 million users in Brazil's 67 different area codes.

Source: TeleGeography

Vodafone Ghana said yesterday it is pushing for the implementation of mobile number portability (MNP) in the country.

The company’s head of corporate communications, Albert Don-Chebe, said: ‘The claims and counter claims by network operators on which one has the best network quality will all be put to rest when MNP is implemented to give the subscriber the power to decide which network is best.’ The Minister of Communications Haruna Iddrisu had earlier confirmed his commitment to MNP during his vetting in parliament, saying: ‘With as many as six mobile operators in Ghana it has become necessary for MNP to be implemented to give customers the choice and flexibility to be on any network they want and I can assure you that I am committed to its implementation.’ However, he noted at the time that the introduction of MNP was dependent on the setting up of the appropriate regulatory and technical environment ready to use it. The national telecoms regulator, the National Communications Authority, said about a year ago that it was standardising the national numbering system before the implementation of MNP, possibly in 2011.

Source: Telegeography

Bahrain's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has directed mobile operators in the country to make mobile number portability (MNP) available by the end of this year. The Gulf Daily News reported that the regulator also announced the standard charge for the service would be BHD10 (USD26), whilst the number porting process should take two days. TRA general director Alan Horne told a press conference: ‘We see this as one of the more important measures...to increase competitiveness and choice for the consumer.’

Source: Telegeography

According to India’s Economic Times, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has revealed draft legislation for the introduction of mobile number portability (MNP). Having previously indicated that it expected MNP to be implemented by 20 September 2009 in all metros and some states, the TRAI has fleshed out the details of the impending regulations. Under the proposals customers will only be permitted to switch providers after 90 days of service from their existing service provider, and will face a further 90 day wait if wanting to switch again. Subscribers will be required to submit a request in writing to their provider, which will then be responsible for carrying out a series of mandatory checks, including identity verification. The switching process must be completed within five days. Subscribers will face a fee for the service, although the level of this charge has not yet been decided; estimates for the fee are between INR250 (USD5.18) and INR400 (USD8.29). The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has already selected two companies – Syniverse Technologies and MNP Interconnect – to implement and manage MNP.

Source: Telegeography

The Hungarian mobile market continued to shrink in May, though at a lesser rate than in April. At the end of the month, the three Hungarian mobile operators had a total of 11.912 million subscribers, which is nearly 79,000 lower than in April. The National Communications Authority (NHH) also noted that in May, the number of subscriptions per 100 people dropped to 118.9 from the 119.6 recorded one month before.

At the end of May 2008, the number of subscriptions per 100 people was 114.1, while the highest recorded value until today was 121.8 at the end of December 2008.

Source: Cellular News.

Following a feasibility study, the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has concluded that mobile number portability (MNP) is not necessary until the wireless subscriber tally is higher. ‘At this stage, number portability is not something we see as a remedy in this market,’ Patrick Masambu, executive director of the UCC, said. ‘We carried out a study into this and we have the conclusion that there is a certain subscriber sum we need before we introduce number portability because of the costs involved.’ Masambu said that MNP will only make sense when there are ten million mobile subscribers in the country. At the time the UCC conducted the study Uganda had three million users, a figure which had jumped to 8.7 million by the end of 2008.

Source: TeleGeography.

Source: Wireless Federation.

India’s Economic Times is reporting that the introduction of mobile number portability (MNP) will take place in the four metro calling circles by 20 September 2009 at the latest. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has ordered that, following the award of contracts to Syniverse Technologies and MNP Interconnection for the management of MNP systems, rollout of the service must take place within six months in some regions. The DoT split the country into two zones for the purposes of MNP management, and Syniverse, which won the contract for zone 1, must implement MNP in Delhi, Mumbai, Maharashtra and Gujarat by September, while MNP Interconnection must facilitate the service in Calcutta, Tamil Nadu, Chennai, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka by that date. The remaining circles in each zone must have access to MNP by 20 March 2010. The DoT has also stated that the Telecoms Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will be responsible for setting the fees for the services, and while no official announcement has been made regarding the pricing structure it is understood that the number porting fee is likely to be below INR300 (USD6.16).

Source: TeleGeography.

The subscribers will be charged not more than Rs. 300 to avail number portability service, likely to start from September 20. “It will be one time cost for subscribers seeking portability but the charge is not yet finalised by the DoT and TRAI, on which they are working. So far, it seems the charges would not be more than Rs 300 but this could be even below Rs 200,” according to the sources. The government has deliberately forced operators to keep the cost and charges at a level so that the subscribers are willing to use the service. Also at the same time make the service providers a viable business model, they said.

Source: Wireless Federation.

The number of active broadband connections in Ireland (fixed and mobile) passed the 1.2 million mark at the end of 2008, up 35% year-on-year, according to data published by the national telecoms regulator ComReg. Excluding mobile broadband subscriptions however, the figure for xDSL, cable-based and other (WiMAX etc) lines was 891,000. The regulator said that broadband per capita penetration reached 27.1% at the end of the year, with DSL subscriptions accounting for 45.9% of all internet subscriptions. During the fourth quarter, the number of dial-up internet subscribers fell to just 237,475, down 27% y-o-y; total internet subscriptions stood at 1.4 million, 18.5% higher than a year earlier.

ComReg’s quarterly report notes that cellular penetration in the Republic stood at 121% by 31 December 2008, as the total number of mobile subscriptions passed 5.3 million. Vodafone remains the leading player, with a 41.1% market share, followed by O2 with 37.9%, Meteor Mobile with 18.2% and 3 Ireland with just 2.8%. ComReg reported that the total number of text messages sent in the three months to 31 December reached over 2.8 billion, up from 2.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007. In addition it noted that approximately 1.487 million people have switched mobile provider since the launch of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in June 2003.

Source: TeleGeography.

The mobile subscriber base in Slovenia has surpassed the population of the country, reports the Agency for Post and Electronic Communications. According to the Slovenian Watchdog, the mobile penetration in the country has reached 100.1% in Q4'08, rising by 4.9% from 2007.

Mobitel, country's largest mobile operator, lead the market with 58.9% of the market share, followed by Simobil which stood at 27.8% and Tusmobil at 5.8%.

Nearly 85,075 of mobile phoner numbers were ported in 2008, escalating by 30% since 2007.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Spain has reportedly added 276,352 mobile subscribers in the Spanish mobile market, taking the subscriber base to a total of 50.89 million, a hike of 3.7% since last year. According to CMT, the Spanish regulator, Yoigo took over 44.3% of the total net additions, while MVNOs took 29.6% of the total net additions, Vodafone got 18.5% of net adds to its kitty whereas Orange accounted for 7.4% and Movistar 0.2%.

Mobile penetration in the country reached 112.6% rising from 108.6% in December’07.The M2M sector has gone up by 32.3% since 2007, to 1.47 million lines. The growth of the M2M sector brings the total number of mobile lines to 52.36 million.

Nearly 378,302 mobile numbers were ported in December’08, a rise of 9.6% in comparison to 2007. Yoigo, Orange and the MVNOs saw a postive rise in portability, while Vodafone and Movistar saw a negative downfall. Yoigo won 24,765 users, the MVNOs attracted 19,927, and Orange added 106,249 ported subscribers.

Source: Wireless Federation.

The National Authority for Communications (ANC) has issued a press release claiming that since number portability was introduced last October there has been a total of 31,514 ported numbers as of the begining of February. Over 26,000 of the total are mobile numbers, whereas 5,291 are fixed telephone numbers. The main fixed customer gains were seen by RCS&RDS (1,059), UPC (1,892) and Vodafone (1,479). Where mobile telephony is concerned, following porting, all five of the operators gained new subscribers: Cosmote gained 11,707, Vodafone 7,328, Orange 6,849, Telemobil 211 and RCS&RDS 128.

Porting is possible only within the same category of numbers (fixed-fixed, mobile-mobile). The service has been available in Romania since 21 October 2008. The ceiling of ported numbers per day was gradually extended, as required by the number of porting requests, and at present each operator can port 500 numbers a day.

Source: TeleGeography.

Turkcell, Turkey’s largest mobile operator in terms of subscribers, has reported that it attracted 650,000 net new customers in the final three months of 2008, taking its total user base to 37 million. Rival operator Avea said on Friday that it had gained 244,000 net new subscribers since the implementation of mobile number portability (MNP) in mid-November, meaning that the country’s other cellco, Vodafone, has been the big loser since MNP was introduced; it saw customer numbers fall from 17.36 million at end-September to 16.72 million three months later.

Source: teleGeography.

In related news, the regulator also announced that the number of mobile subscriptions rose by 111,000 in November 2008, the three domestic mobile operators thus having 11.95 million customers in total at the end of the month, with a population penetration level of 119.1 %.

Based on the number of SIM cards that can receive calls, by the end of November the market share of T-mobile increased from previous month’s 43.90 percent to 43.94 percent, the market share of Vodafone grew from 20.82 percent to 20.88 percent, while Pannon’s market share dropped from 35.29 percent to 35.18 percent.

The clients of the three mobile operators ported 4,700 numbers in October. According to the data of the NHH, a total of 241,806 numbers were ported since mobile number portability became available in May 2004.

Source: Cellular News.

Source: TeleGeography.

According to Brazil’s telecoms standards authority ABR Telecom, a total of 119,143 telephone numbers were ported in the 122 days since number portability (NP) was implemented on 1 September 2008. BNamericas reports that by 31 December ABR Telecom had registered 78,960 ports from mobile telephony users and 40,183 from fixed telephony users. The total number of requests submitted was 180,144, of which 119,533 were mobile and 60,611 were fixed. NP is currently available to about 59.6 million users in the states of Acre, Alagoas, Bahia, Ceara, Espírito Santo, Goias, Maranhao, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul, Paraiba, Parana, Piaui, Rio Grande do Norte, Rondonia, Santa Catarina and Sao Paulo. The system is expected to be available nationwide by end-March 2009.

Source: TeleGeography.

­Spain's telecoms regulator, the CMT has reported that mobile number portability has remained roughly stable at around 300,000 per month, with 338,361 numbers ported in the month of October. This is a 5.9% rise on the same month a yeat ago.

The fourth network operator, Yoigo, and MVNOs gained 7,459 and 8,539 lines respectively - while Vodafone, Movistar and Orange all saw a net outflow of subscribers through MNP.

Vodafone took an average of 29.2% of the gain lines of the past three months, Orange, 25.5%; Yoigo, 19.2%; Movistar, from 14.3% and finally the MVNOs, the remaining 11.9%. The country added a gross amount of 242,913 lines in October.

The regulator also reported that there are now 1.44 million machine-to-machine connections in the country.

On the web: CMT

Source: Cellular News.

Number Portability in Brazil has extended to another 8.9mn fixed and mobile telephony users in three states in the country, reports Anatel. Telephony services users in the area code 82 in Alagoas state, area codes 12 and 13 in São Paulo state and code 83 in Paraíba state can now port their numbers to other operators. According to telecoms standards coordinator ABR Telecom, Requests to port numbers in Brazil reaches 97,641 by November 27. Of the overall requests, 57,375 telephone numbers have already been ported - 34,168 mobile and 23,207 fixed.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Mobile subscribers of Peru will enjoy number portability free of charge, said Deputy Communications Minister, Gonzalo Ruiz. The government will try to guarantee an easy process for users willing to port their mobile numbers, he added.

In January 2009, Number Portability (NP) is scheduled for implementation in Peru and telecoms regulator Osiptel has recently published the regulations for number portability implementation.

The transport and communications ministry (MTC) has given consent over the use of the All Call Query (ACQ) methodology for NP in Peru. A central database will be created of ported numbers which operators will consult for every call to find out which network a dialled number belongs to.

The telecoms operator will invest approximately US$22million to implement Number Portability.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Number Portability, which was launched in Brazil of September’08, will now be available to another 8.3mn fixed and mobile telephony users in Brazil’s four states, reports country’s telecoms regulator Anatel.
Users of telephony services in Minas Gerais state, Paraná state, Santa Catarina state and Rio Grande do Norte state can now port their numbers to other operators. In total, NP currently reaches 29.2mn users across various states of the country.
According to ABR Telecom, coordinator, Requests in Brazil for porting numbers reached 61,960 by November 3 and of the overall requests, 36,671 telephone numbers have already been ported - 20,892 mobile and 15,779 fixed.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Avea, one of Turkey’s leading mobile operator sees a boost of 2.5 million new subscribers with the introduction MNP. Avea predicts that nearly 9 million mobile users in Turkey will switch their operators, taking advantage of this new service.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Fixed and Mobile Number Portability launches in Romania, enabling the users to switch their operator without having to change their phone number. With the coming of number portability the competition in market will grow as every operator will be running to give out lower tariffs in an effort to grab maximum subscribers with their competitive packages.
According Liviu Nistoran, president of telecoms regulator ANC, it is estimated that in the next two years of number portability approximately 20%-25% of mobile numbers will be ported. The regulator says that operators will have ten days to complete number porting requests.

Source: Wireless Federation.