September 10, 2006	Sunday	Sha'aban 16, 1427

KARACHI, Sept 9: Some cellphone operators who are ready for the commercial implementation of mobile number portability (MNP) in October appear not happy over the postponement of the MNP till December or early 2007 as some leading players have sought some time.

They said that they were already geared up for the October deadline given by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and they can enforce the MNP in just few days.

Telenor Pakistan Chief Executive Officer Tore Johnson told Dawn the delay was unfortunate and the general customer was one who would suffer. It is his freedom to change operators without changing his number that has been postponed by another three months.

The network and administrative system upgrades for MNP cost Telenor $7.5 million.

He said that the number portability was a complex technical operation where all the cellphone operators had to perform upgrades in their network and administrative systems. He added that all the operators had been working on this but it was taking longer than was originally planned.

The fact that the PTCL also has to upgrade its network has caused some delays as well. Key decisions on PTCL’s upgrade programme were delayed due to the delay in PTCL’s privatisation process.

Answering a question about PTCL’s plan to implement MNP by March 2007, Mr Tore said that before PTCL had the final solution in place, companies would hopefully use an alternative solution for the interim period.

On the prospects of cut in tariff charges at the time of MNP’s commercial launch, he said there was no link between slashing calling charges and number portability. But the freedom for the customer to choose operator, without changing number, would be the real advantage.

An official in the Warid Telecom told Dawn that the company can now start the MNP system on just 10 day notice but it cannot as other operators are not ready.

PTA Public Relation Department Deputy Director Khurram Mehran was approached by Dawn and a questionnaire was e-mailed to him some 15 days back regarding the current status of MNP and quality of service of cellphone operators. But, the PTA official has so far not replied and in the meantime he continued with dilly-dallying tactics of sending the reply in just few days.

Mobilink Public Relation Manager Omar Manzur said that the company was complying as per PTA’s requirement and policies regarding the MNP implementation. When ever the PTA requires for MNP’s commercial launch Mobilink will be ready, he added.

Sources in Ufone said that there had been no such big delay in the MNP implementation and it was likely to be commercially activated in November.

The MNP will be implemented after operational and inter- operational testing within the companies and it takes three to four weeks before commercial launching, they informed.

The delay in MNP implementation would not cause any problems as cellphone operators can launch the MNP through a system called onward routing, they added.

Ufone is reported to have invested around $15 million in the upgradation of switches and exchanges of its system for the MNP.