Mobile Number Protability
BTRC now goes for appointing third party as telcos delay
The country’s telecom regulator has now decided to implement the mobile number portability service through a third-party model as the mobile phone operators have been delaying the process since January 2014. The regulator will now choose a vendor for the job and they will provide the service under agreements with the mobile operators, said officials. The MNP is a service where a subscriber is allowed to switch mobile operator without changing his/her number.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission officials said the decision to implement the MNP through the third-party model was made in a regular commission meeting last week presided over by BTRC chairman Sunil Kanti Bose.
The mobile phone companies were scheduled to submit a report to the BTRC by January 31, elaborating their plan for implementing the MNP service.
The BTRC officials said the mobile operators failed to submit the report within the deadline.
‘The mobile phone companies are delaying implementation of the MNP service. As we have completed the public consultation of MNP, we will go for the third-party model for implementing the service according to our choice,’ a senior BTRC official told New Age on Thursday.
He said the commission had already instructed the department concerned for amending the relevant clauses to finalise the implementation model of the MNP.
The BTRC in November 16, 2014 invited public opinions to implement the MNP service.
The BTRC proposed two models for introducing the MNP service, one was to be a mobile operator-led consortium model and the other was to be a third-party model chosen by the BTRC.
Under the operators consortium, the mobile companies are supposed to set up the equipments and also give the manage service.
Earlier, the mobile phone companies, through a committee, proposed the BTRC that it would take five years to implement the service.
A committee comprising of mobile phone operators, IGW, ICX and PSTN operators in a recent interim progress report said the cost of implementing the MNP service would be $150 million.
In June 2013 the telecom regulator had asked the mobile phone operators to introduce the MNP service by January 2014. But the operators expressed their inability saying it would be a short time for implementing such a service.
A subscriber will be able to get the service with a charge of not more than Tk 50 and will be able to avail the service through SMS, web application or retail service outlets, according to the BTRC.
More than 70 countries have MNP, which increases competition among operators in terms of service quality, said BTRC officials.
-With New Age input
