ISLAMABAD: The country’s mobile operators Friday pledged to overcome their differences and put in place the much-awaited mobile number portability system by the end of January next year. Their assurance came following a joint meeting with Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari and PTA chairman Shahzada Alam Malik. The meeting was called by the IT minister to specifically review the implementation status and issues impeding the introduction of MNP in the country.

The meeting was also attended by IT Secretary Farrakh Qayyum, and CEOs of all six cellular operators who are members of the PMD, a body specifically set up for implementation of MNP. The cellular mobile policy approved by cabinet in January 2004 had mandated the introduction of MNP by December 2005 but achievement of that deadline has been overdue by a whole year due to various reasons which include technical non-readiness of PTCL and lack of consensus among cellular, fixed line and WLL operators on charges for the consumers to call numbers that are ported out from the operators to which they were originally assigned. The operators assured to work in close coordination with the regulator to remove their differences on the pricing issues about onward routing of calls made from subscribers and launch MNP within the next three months to fulfill policy commitments and safeguard consumer interest. Online
Source: Daily Times
Date:10/14/2006