Mobile number portability (MNP)

General overview
MNP is implemented in different ways across the globe. The international and
European standard is for a customer wishing to port his/her number to contact the
new provider (Recipient) who will then arrange necessary process with the old
provider (Donor). This is also known as 'Recipient-Led' porting. The UK is the
only country to not implement a Recipient-Led system, where a customer wishing
to port his/her number is required to contact the Donor to obtain a Porting
Authorisation Code (PAC) which he/she then has to give to the Recipient. Once
having received the PAC the Recipient continues the port process by contacting the
Donor. This form of porting is also known as 'Donor-Led' and has been criticised
by some industry analysts as being inefficient. It has also been observed that it may
act as a customer deterrent as well as allowing the Donor an opportunity of
'winning-back' the customer. This might lead to distortion of competition,
especially in the markets with new entrants that are yet to achieve scalability of
operation.

Technical details
A significant technical aspect of MNP (Mobile Number Portability) is related to
the routing of calls or mobile messages (SMS, MMS) to a number once it has been
ported. There are various flavours of call routing implementation across the globe
but the international and European best practice is via the use of a central
database (CDB) of ported numbers. Network operator makes copies of CDB and
queries it to find out which network to send a call to. This is also known as All
Call Query (ACQ) and is highly efficient and scalable. Majority of the established
and upcoming MNP systems across the world are based on this ACQ/CDB method
of call routing. One of the very few countries to not use ACQ/CDB is the UK
where calls to a number once it has been ported are still routed via the Donor
network. This is also known as 'Indirect Routing' and is highly inefficient as it is
wasteful of transmission and switching capacity. Because of its Donor dependent
nature, Indirect Routing also means that if the Donor network develops a fault or
goes out of business, the customers who have ported out of that network will lose
incoming calls to their numbers. The UK telecoms regulator Ofcom completed its
extended review of the UK MNP process on 29 November 2007 and mandated that
ACQ/CDB be implemented for mobile to mobile ported calls by no later than 1
September 2009, and for all other (fixed and mobile) ported calls by no later than
31 December 2012.

Prior to March 2008 it took a minimum of 5 working days to port a number in the
UK compared to 2 hours only in USA, as low as 20 minutes in the Republic of
Ireland, 3 minutes in Australia and even a matter of seconds in New Zealand. On
17 July 2007, Ofcom released its conclusions from the review of UK MNP and
mandated reduction of porting time to 2 working days with effect from 1 April
2008. On 29 November 2007, Ofcom completed its consultation on further
reduction to porting time to 2 hours along with recipient led porting and mandated
that near-instant (no more than 2 hours) recipient led porting be implemented by no
later than 1 September 2009.

In a decentralised model of MNP, a FNR (Flexible Number Register) may be used

Number Lookup Services

Mobile number portability by country

Implementation Time
Country date to port Price Short notes References
yyyy.mm.dd days
Previously prefixes
04x1, 04x2, 04x3 referred to Optus
04x4, 04x5 and 04x6 referred to
Vodafone
[4]
Australia 2001.09.25 1 Free 043x, referred to Vodafone
Hutchison Australia formally known
as Hutchison 3G Australia.
04x7, 04x8, 04x9 and 0410x
referred to Telstra
[5][6] [7]
Hong Kong 1999.03.01 2 Free Service handled by Office of the
Telecommunications Authority
(OFTA). In the network, you may
 be charged unexpectedly for a call
to a mobile that has been ported
form a different network.
1 or [8][9][10][11]
Malaysia 2008.10 Free
more
Customers can port between prepay
and post pay options. On port-In, the
Donor company provides, free
Pakistan 2007.03.23 4
balance and on-net free minutes.
Service handled by Pakistan MNP
Database (Guarantee) Limited[12]
Vendor for database installation is
Singapore 2008.06.13
Syniverse Technologies
Taiwan 2005.10.??
Number Portability Clearinghouse
3 or
Thailand 2010.12.?? service is handled by Telcordia
more
Technologies.
Syniverse Technologies and
Telecordia have installed database
servers. MNP is expected to be
launched in India on 31 October
India 2010.11.01 3[13] 19 [14] 2010. However, the customer can
port between pre paid and post paid
and vice versa within the same
operator in most of the major
operators.[15]

[edit] Europe

Implementation Time to
Price
Country date port Short notes References
yyyy.mm.dd days
Czech [16]
2006.01.15
Republic
The central solution CRDC has
been re-implemented several times.
First time it was implemented by
Telcordia Technologies US, second
Belgium 2002.10.?? Free
time by Cap Gemini Sweden and
Belgium, third time by Porthus
Belgium. Access to DB: setup fee :
€11 000, annual fee: € 3000.
2.56
Bulgaria 2008.04.??
EUR
Greece 2004.??.?? Service handled by Telcordia
 Technologies
0-29 The central solutions is called OCH [17][18]
Denmark 2001.??.?? 30-60
DKK - Operators Clearing House
Estonia 2005.01.01
[19]
Finland 2003.07.25 Free Handled by the company Numpac
Heavily improved since May 2007
with a 10-days maximum lead time
France 2003.06.?? 10
(was taking 2 months in most cases
before then)
The average price charged is about
€ 25. The exact amount depends on
25 [20] [21]
Germany 2002.11.01 the old provider. A price limit of €
EUR
30.72 was set by the
Bundesnetzagentur.
Hungary 2004.??.?? 8 Free
0
(typically
Ireland 2003.??.?? Free
1-2
hours)
Italy 2002.01.15 3
Latvia 10 Free
Service handled by Telcordia
Lithuania 2005.??.??
Technologies
Managed by the G.I.E Telcom
E.I.G. operator group and
Luxembourg 2005.02.01 1
developed, installed and operated
by Systor Trondheim AS.
The reference database was
developed, installed and is
Macedonia 2008.09.01
presently operated by Seavus
Group.
Administrated by the National
NOK Reference Database (NRDB). The
Norway 2001.04.01 5 0- reference database was developed,
200 installed and is presently operated
by Systor Trondheim AS.
To be administrated by the National
Central Database (PLI-CBD) run by
Office of Electronic
Poland 2006.02.?? Free
Communications (UKE). 30-day
max porting time is to be reduced to
1 day.
Operated by Portabil S.A. Solution
Portugal 2002.01.01 implemented by Systor Trondheim
AS of Norway.
 Developed by UTI Systems based [22]
Romania 2008.10.21 7-30 Free
on the Porthus implementation
Slovenia 2005.??.?? 5 EUR 5 EUR is a maximum possible price
Spain 2000.??.??
The largest operators formed
independent company, SNPAC AB,
to procure central database (CRDB)
Sweden 2001.09.01 21 Free
solution. Implementation of CRDB
is carried out by Cap Gemini &
Oracle.
AVEA and Vodafone hired Gantek
to implement central database
(CRDB) solution and donated it to
Turkey 2008.11.09 6 Free Turkish Telecommunications
Regulatory Authority. Number
Portability Clearinghouse service
handled by Telcordia Technologies
United [23]
Free
Kingdom

[edit] Middle East and Africa

Implementation Time
Country date to port Price Short notes References
yyyy.mm.dd days
NPC serves the centralized
administrative and provisioning role
of MNP. Number Portability
Egypt 2008.04.??
Clearhouse is handled by Telcordia
Technologies, where Giza Systems
is the system integrator.
3–4 Service includes landline as well as [24]
Israel 2007.12.03 Free
hours mobile numbers
Service is not implemented, but is
still planned. TRC started the
process in 2005 and released the [25]
Jordan 2010.06.01 1 7 JOD
official bid to implement and
operate MNP during September
2009.
The Minister of
Telecommunications has stated that
the service should be available
Kuwait 2010.12.31?
before the end of 2010. However a
number of delays have been
reported in the media.
Nigeria 2007.??.??
Implemented as a decentralized
solution by Porthus for Nawras, and
Oman 2006.08.26 by Gulf Business
Machines/Telcordia for Oman
Mobile.
Managed by the Centralized
Clearinghouse Approach, through
the NPC (Number Portability
Saudi
2006.07.08 Clearinghouse), a product of
Arabia
Telcordia Technologies. The
implementer and system integrator
is Giza Arabia.
The three operators, Vodacom SA,
MTN SA, and Cell C, formed an
independent company for the
implementation and management of
South Africa 2006.11.10 the central solution. After delays,
the implementation of this solution
was awarded to local company Saab
Grintek teamed up with Telcordia
Technologies.