A fast and simple porting system is fundamental to a competitive market.
What is it?
Mobile Number Porting (MNP) is the ability to move your mobile number from one mobile operator to another. Mobile Number Porting guarantees that customers can keep their mobile number if they find an operator that offers them a better deal, or a package that better suits their needs.
Currently, customers who want to change operator and keep their number are forced to go to their old operator and request a code known as a Porting Authorisation Code or 'PAC’, which they must then give to their new operator. The customer’s old operator is incentivised under this process to try to make the acquisition of the PAC code difficult and frustrating, causing unnecessary delay for the customer.
Why number porting should be easier.
If customers can't port their number to another operator easily and without fear of losing it, then many of them simply won't port, and the industry regulator Ofcom’s research backs this up*.
This acts as a barrier to customers being able to switch to whichever operator is offering them the best value, stifling competition and consumer choice. There is also less incentive for operators to offer their best deals upfront, if operators know that customers can’t leave them as easily.
Last year, Ofcom ruled that the existing two-day porting time will be reduced to one day, as of 11 April 2011. Operators will also be obliged to provide a PAC code within a two-hour period of the customer requesting it.
We think this is still too long and believe the process should instead be handled by the operator that the customer chooses to join (this is called “recipient-led”) and the overall porting process reduced to two hours from the customer’s initial point of contact with the new operator.
The UK is alone in Europe in forcing mobile customers to ask their current operator permission to keep their number, and in many countries moving your number is much quicker too. For example, in Ireland, customers with O2, Vodafone and Three already enjoy a near-instant recipient-led system. On some occasions it can take just a few minutes. In other words, customers who are out of contract can change operator and take advantage of better deals during their lunch break. So, if it’s good enough for O2 and Vodafone’s customers in Ireland, why not here too?
We will continue to push for faster, easier porting as we believe this is in the best interests of competition and consumers.
If you would like to sign up to our campaign to put pressure on the regulator to do the right thing, click here
*Review of Porting Report, 6 March 2009, prepared by Jigsaw Research for Ofcom available here.
