Azernews.Az

Thursday March 28 2024

Azerbaijani cellular operator launches number portability service

1 August 2013 18:53 (UTC+04:00)
Azerbaijani cellular operator launches number portability service

By Aynur Jafarova

Azerbaijani cellular operator Bakcell has launched Mobile Number Portability (MNP) service, the company told Trend news agency on August 1.

According to the company, currently customers of other cellular operators may contact Bakcell customer service offices by submitting a SIM-card and the identity card.

The MNP service over Bakcell's network is free.

The Azerbaijani Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies said that the cellular operators have not met their obligations on the launch of the MNP service, the ministry told Trend.

According to the ministry, since the operators haven't implemented the technical obligations for the launch of the service in their networks, it inflicted financial damage to the ministry.

The ministry has therefore issued a final warning to the operators and plans to file a plea to the court for compensation of the financial damage.

MNP, which is implemented across the world, enables mobile telephone users to retain their phone numbers when changing a network operator. The two providers in an MNP transaction are called the 'Recipient' (new provider) and the 'Donor' (previous provider).

The MNP system will be coordinated by the data processing center of the ministry. The agreements on the application of the service have been signed with the three operators, Bakcell, Azercell and Azerfon.

Legal documents under the MNP service launching have already been adopted and the required equipment has been installed in the operators' networks.

A replacement will take about six days, while returning to the previous operator will be possible in three months if the user has no debt. However, this service is not available for SIM-cards used in Data-cards.

One of the project's important components is the subscriber's transition to another operator without an outstanding bill. Otherwise, the service will not be rendered.

Number portability envisions full migration of a subscriber's phone number with the operator's prefix by replacing the SIM card.

Operators have been instructed to use a 10-digit set of subscriber numbers. So, it is necessary to dial the operator's prefix (050, 051, 055, 070 or 077) and the seven-digit phone number.

The introduction of the MNP service will allow the users to choose a provider as well as increase competition, and prompt operators to provide more advantageous services to attract new customers.
Loading...
Latest See more