Mobile number portability service available from February
By Nigar Orujova
The Azerbaijani ICT Ministry will provide subscribers with the mobile number portability (MNP) service from February 1, it said in a statement on January 28.
Implementation of the MNP service will allow mobile communication subscribers to save their phone number when changing a network operator. The number transfer envisages a subscriber's transition from one service to another with the provider's prefix of 050, 051, 055, 070 and 077.
The mobile operators have already announced their readiness to deploy the MNP service. The introduction of the MNP service will allow users to choose a provider, increase competition and also prompt operators to provide more advantageous services to attract new customers.
Technical problems were slowing down the commissioning of the service, which was expected to be lunched in Azerbaijan long ago.
The MNP system will be coordinated by a data processing center of the ministry. Agreements on rendering the service have been signed with the three operators operating in the domestic market -- Bakcell, Azercell and Azerfon.
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. The service is not available for SIM-cards used in Data-cards.