Business Daily (Nairobi)
Okuttah Mark
25 October 2007
Telecoms market regulator, the Communications Commission of Kenya, has frozen plans to introduce number portability technology into the mobile phone market, leaving subscribers who want to change networks with the alternative of acquiring new numbers.
Though new entrants into the market have been pushing for CCK to introduce the system, John Waweru, the director general, reckons that the market is not ripe for it, citing the high costs involved.
"We have a licence category for number portability service provider that nobody is willing to invest in because of the high costs involved," Mr Waweru said.
Number portability allows subscribers to switch networks without changing number. For example, a Safaricom subscriber who decides to switch to Celtel does not have to buy a Celtel line but moves with the same number.
Such a subscriber will, however, have to top up airtime using cards belonging to the service provider one is shifting to besides paying a monthly subscription fee to the number portability service provider.
Apart from the high cost of installing the technology, subscribers have to shoulder a part of the charges payable to the number portability service provider.
Technically, the number portability provider has to invest in a switching system that can identify the phone numbers belonging to the two phone companies.
Mr Waweru said none of the current operators is willing to invest in such a platform.
"No operator is willing to put their money into this project and neither is the commission capable of doing so," he said.
Econet Limited, the third mobile operator yet to roll into the market, had indicated that it was talking to CCK on the possibility of introducing infrastructure sharing and number portability .
Number portability and infrastructure sharing are seen as offering service providers an opportunity to reduce capital expenditure.
"It has not been so successful where it has been tried and we don't want to go that way. I don't see it happening in Kenya even in the next three years," said Mr Waweru.
He pointed out that the best way to bring costs down in the telecoms sector was to license more players to increase competition pressure and ensure quality of service.
With time, he said, technological innovation will provide a cheaper platform for such a service.
"The world is headed for a time when an individual will only have one number for their mobile phone, identification and a Personal Identification Number. This may take place in the next five to 10 years subject to the availability of an affordable platform," Mr Waweru said.
The US, Canada, Finland and Australia are among the countries that allow number portability. IT Track, an online publication covering information technology, says use of the technology is nearly peaking in some states in the US but has been very slow in others.
The big gainers according to the publication are the service providers whose monthly surcharges vary from state to state.
In some markets where subscribers are on contract, switching carrier depends on paying the relevant fee, which, according to the publication, negates any savings that may accrue from the service.
South Africa adopted the technology in November last year but is said to be facing numerous technical problems.
In an interview with Bizz.Com, Pieter Streicher, the managing director Bulk SMS.com, said "the porting of cellphone numbers has proved a technical headache. WASPs have to route SMS messages to the correct network operator. This used to be easy but it is not as straightforward anymore."
The article says that before MNP, all numbers prefixed with 082 were routed to Vodacom, 083 to MTN and 084 to Cell C.
With MNP, a 082 number now belongs to any network. To route messages correctly, WASPs now have to determine first whether a number is ported by querying the ported number database.
This has to be done for each number to which an SMS is sent.
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