Mobile operators pledge to implement MNP within 3 months
Staff Report

ISLAMABAD—The country's mobile operators Friday pledged to overcome their differences and put in place the much-awaited mobile number portability system by the end of Januray next year.
Their assurance came following a joint meeting with Minister forInformation Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari and PTA chairman Shahzada Alam Malik. The meeting was called by the IT minister to specifically review the implementation status and issues impeding the introduction of MNP in the country.
The meeting was also attended by IT Secretary Farrakh Qayyum, and CEOs of of all six cellular operators who are members of the PMD, a body specifically set up for implementation of MNP.
The cellular mobile policy approved by cabinet in January 2004 had mandated the introduction of MNP by December 2005 but achievement of that deadline has been overdue by a whole year due to various reasons which include technical non-readiness of PTCL and lack of consensus among cellular, fixed line and WLL operators on charges for the consumers to call numbers that are ported out from the operators to which they were originally assigned.
The operators assured to work in close coordination with the regulator to remove their differences on the pricing issues about onward routing of calls made from subscribers and launch MNP within the next three months to fulfill policy commitments and safeguard consumer interest. MNP is a capability in the cellular mobile networks due to which consumers can switch service providers and still be able to retain their phone numbers.
Awais Leghari also urged PTA to ensure through strict measures that the commitments by PTCL and the mobile operators for upgrade of their networks to enable introduction of systems are met to ensure launch of the policy by the timeline agreed by the operators. He also called upon Mobilink, the largest mobile operator, to extend cooperation in ironing out issues regarding charges for routing callsfrom fixed line and WLL operators to ported numbers during the interim period during which these operators will be upgrading their networks.
The minister said the provision for introduction of MNP was one of the key measures mandated by the policy for ensuring freedom of operator choice as well as quality of service for the consumers and had been adopted in several countries for protection of vital consumer interests and for achievement of optimal competition.
He said the government was firm in its commitment to uphold the policy and help the operators overcome hurdles causing delays in the introduction of MNP. "All the stakeholders need to aggressively work together and overcome differences for an expedited launch to ensure the achievement of policy objectives," Legahri remarked while concluding the proceedings.