August 23, 2007	Thursday	Sha’aban 9, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Aug 22: Pakistan is among the first few countries in the region to have successfully implemented the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) with over 100,000 mobile phone subscribers and the popularity of the service was growing since it started five months ago.

This was observed at the opening session of a three-day workshop on “Implementing MNP” held here on Wednesday. The workshop was organised by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) under the auspices of ITU Centre of Excellence Network.

The MNP enables a cellphone subscriber to switch to any mobile service provider while retaining the original number.

Pakistan was selected by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to provide training to other countries who wished to implement the MNP regime.

On this occasion, the head of ITU regional office for Asia Pacific, Dr Eum-ju Kim, said that the workshop was an excellent example of PTA’s willingness to share the experiences gathered and lessons learnt while implementing the MNP in Pakistan.

“The resources available and the wide experiences of the PTA in this area is an asset to the programme,” he said.

“MNP means that customers can switch between cellular service providers without changing numbers,” said a participant, while another believed that the regime was about facilitating consumer choice across mobile operators because it removed the inherent cost of a number change when moving on to a new provider.

After successfully implementing the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) regime nationwide, PTA Chairman Maj-Gen (retired) Shahzada Alam Malik said the authority would provide support to others planning to put the MNP into operation in their countries. Mr Malik said that the workshop had provided the Pakistani regulator an opportunity to share its experiences and expertise in the implementation of the MNP regime.

“The PTA is willing to send its experts to the regional countries to help them implement MNP,” he said.

He said the service was aimed at strengthening healthy competition in the market and to improve the quality of service of the country’s rapidly growing cellular phone sector.

Appreciating the cooperation extended by the country’s cellphone companies towards the implementation of MNP, he said the service had been launched in Pakistan at a cost of around $150 million.

On the occasion, Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication Member Telecom Nooruddin Baqai said establishment of ITU’s Centre of Excellence Node in Pakistan was a recognition of the country’s sound economic liberalisation policies and the unprecedented growth that had been witnessed in the telecom sector.

He said MNP had empowered the mobile subscribers and they enjoyed their right to choose any mobile service provider while retaining their numbers.

PTA Member (Technical) Dr Mohammad Yaseen, in his presentation, explained the process of implementation of the MNP in Pakistan.

Forty-five participants from 15 countries including the US, UK, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Oman are attending the workshop.