The Prime Minister’s Office has greenlighted guidelines on long-awaited mobile number portability (MNP) – a facility that allows a subscriber to switch from one operator to another without having to change the existing number.
Users will be enjoying the facility at the start of the next year, Minister of State for Posts and Telecommunications Tarana Halim has told bdnews24.com.
She said on Monday: “The PMO has given the approval for introducing the MNP facility.”
They would meet the chief executives of the mobile-phone operators to discuss the matter, said Halim.
The minister hoped the MNP process would be finalised by December.
“According to the guidelines, inviting tenders and the finalising other issues will take some time. I expect the MNP service to be available to subscribers by January or February,” she said.
On Sep 14, Halim had told bdnews24.com work would begin as soon as the PMO approved the MNP guidelines.
Sunil Kanti Bose, the outgoing BTRC chairman, had said in May the regulators would give contract to a company to introduce the facility.
He had said the facility would become available once the government gave the greenlight.
The BTRC had instructed the mobile-phone service providers in June 2013 to help subscribers to switch operators without them having to change numbers.
A renewal clause of the 2G licence had stated that the operators would introduce the facility, but they were unable to do so in time.
Later, the telecoms regulators placed before the government a new set of guidelines to launch the facility under its own supervision.
It was decided that the licensing and tendering process would begin after government approval.
The 2013 guidelines given to the operators for starting the MNP service fixed the tariff at a maximum of Tk 50 and set a seven-month deadline to have it in place.
The operators were also told to form a consortium within three months to launch the facility in time.
The transfer option was to be made available to both pre-paid and post-paid customers.
The use of a mobile-phone number over a period of time makes it a part of an individual or organisation’s identity. Yet, they often have to switch operators to take the advantage of a better network or more competitive plans on offer.
The BTRC had worked for about a year to draw up the guidelines to empower subscribers and prepare the operational framework.
Apart from various countries of the Americas and Europe, the MNP facility is available in neighbouring India and Pakistan as well.
Source: bdnews24