Sri Lanka’s telecommunication watchdog, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRC) has temporarily scrapped an earlier proposal to implement Mobile Number Portability (MNP), a facility which allows a mobile subscriber to change the operator without changing his/her number. According to TRC, Director-General Anusha Palpita, the proposal has been halted as the island did not proportionately have a positive balance in the number of post-paid mobile subscribers in comparison to the number of pre-paid subscribers.
“If the MNP is implemented, the main beneficiary of it and those demanding for it is the population of post-paid mobile subscribers. However, in Sri Lanka’s case, we have less than 10% of the total mobile subscriber population owning a post-paid mobile connection. Therefore, in my opinion implementation of MNP will not be cost-effective at the moment,” the Director-General explained.
Noting that out of the approximately 21.5 million mobile subscribers, only a mere 1.5 million of them were post-paid mobile subscribers, Palpita said that it would be unfair on the 20 million prepaid subscribers to bear the heavy cost of the MNP implementation.
“The full implementation could cost the telecom operators to the tune of US$2 to 3 million which may then have to be passed to the consumer. But considering the inequality in the proportion as mentioned, it is not the right thing to do,” Palpita said adding that some mobile operators have even less than 5% of post-paid subscribers out of their total customer base
However, he pointed out that the TRC has not completely ruled out the implementation and even if the proportion of pre-paid to post-paid was an equal 50-50, the regulator would consider going ahead with the implementation.
In May 2010, TRC had called for consultancy services to suggest ways to introduce mobile phone number portability that will allow subscribers to switch networks while using the same number. A year later, the World Bank had selected a British consultancy firm to commence consultations with mobile sector stakeholders on the possible introduction of MNP in Sri Lanka
When asked what the recommendations/findings were from the British consultancy firm that had been tasked with providing consultations, the Director-General said that he did not remember it as the report was submitted more than two years ago.
- See more at: http://www.nation.lk/edition/biz-news/item/25708-trc-scraps-mnp-plans.html#sthash.NNVpbhHR.jytSreNV.dpuf
“If the MNP is implemented, the main beneficiary of it and those demanding for it is the population of post-paid mobile subscribers. However, in Sri Lanka’s case, we have less than 10% of the total mobile subscriber population owning a post-paid mobile connection. Therefore, in my opinion implementation of MNP will not be cost-effective at the moment,” the Director-General explained.
Noting that out of the approximately 21.5 million mobile subscribers, only a mere 1.5 million of them were post-paid mobile subscribers, Palpita said that it would be unfair on the 20 million prepaid subscribers to bear the heavy cost of the MNP implementation.
“The full implementation could cost the telecom operators to the tune of US$2 to 3 million which may then have to be passed to the consumer. But considering the inequality in the proportion as mentioned, it is not the right thing to do,” Palpita said adding that some mobile operators have even less than 5% of post-paid subscribers out of their total customer base
However, he pointed out that the TRC has not completely ruled out the implementation and even if the proportion of pre-paid to post-paid was an equal 50-50, the regulator would consider going ahead with the implementation.
In May 2010, TRC had called for consultancy services to suggest ways to introduce mobile phone number portability that will allow subscribers to switch networks while using the same number. A year later, the World Bank had selected a British consultancy firm to commence consultations with mobile sector stakeholders on the possible introduction of MNP in Sri Lanka
When asked what the recommendations/findings were from the British consultancy firm that had been tasked with providing consultations, the Director-General said that he did not remember it as the report was submitted more than two years ago.
- See more at: http://www.nation.lk/edition/biz-news/item/25708-trc-scraps-mnp-plans.html#sthash.NNVpbhHR.jytSreNV.dpuf
Sri
Lanka’s telecommunication watchdog, the Telecommunications Regulatory
Commission of Sri Lanka (TRC) has temporarily scrapped an earlier
proposal to implement Mobile Number Portability (MNP), a facility which
allows a mobile subscriber to change the operator without changing
his/her number. According to TRC, Director-General Anusha Palpita, the
proposal has been halted as the island did not proportionately have a
positive balance in the number of post-paid mobile subscribers in
comparison to the number of pre-paid subscribers.
“If the MNP is implemented, the main beneficiary of it and those demanding for it is the population of post-paid mobile subscribers. However, in Sri Lanka’s case, we have less than 10% of the total mobile subscriber population owning a post-paid mobile connection. Therefore, in my opinion implementation of MNP will not be cost-effective at the moment,” the Director-General explained.
Noting that out of the approximately 21.5 million mobile subscribers, only a mere 1.5 million of them were post-paid mobile subscribers, Palpita said that it would be unfair on the 20 million prepaid subscribers to bear the heavy cost of the MNP implementation.
“The full implementation could cost the telecom operators to the tune of US$2 to 3 million which may then have to be passed to the consumer. But considering the inequality in the proportion as mentioned, it is not the right thing to do,” Palpita said adding that some mobile operators have even less than 5% of post-paid subscribers out of their total customer base
However, he pointed out that the TRC has not completely ruled out the implementation and even if the proportion of pre-paid to post-paid was an equal 50-50, the regulator would consider going ahead with the implementation.
In May 2010, TRC had called for consultancy services to suggest ways to introduce mobile phone number portability that will allow subscribers to switch networks while using the same number. A year later, the World Bank had selected a British consultancy firm to commence consultations with mobile sector stakeholders on the possible introduction of MNP in Sri Lanka
When asked what the recommendations/findings were from the British consultancy firm that had been tasked with providing consultations, the Director-General said that he did not remember it as the report was submitted more than two years ago.
- See more at: http://www.nation.lk/edition/biz-news/item/25708-trc-scraps-mnp-plans.html#sthash.NNVpbhHR.jytSreNV.dpuf
“If the MNP is implemented, the main beneficiary of it and those demanding for it is the population of post-paid mobile subscribers. However, in Sri Lanka’s case, we have less than 10% of the total mobile subscriber population owning a post-paid mobile connection. Therefore, in my opinion implementation of MNP will not be cost-effective at the moment,” the Director-General explained.
Noting that out of the approximately 21.5 million mobile subscribers, only a mere 1.5 million of them were post-paid mobile subscribers, Palpita said that it would be unfair on the 20 million prepaid subscribers to bear the heavy cost of the MNP implementation.
“The full implementation could cost the telecom operators to the tune of US$2 to 3 million which may then have to be passed to the consumer. But considering the inequality in the proportion as mentioned, it is not the right thing to do,” Palpita said adding that some mobile operators have even less than 5% of post-paid subscribers out of their total customer base
However, he pointed out that the TRC has not completely ruled out the implementation and even if the proportion of pre-paid to post-paid was an equal 50-50, the regulator would consider going ahead with the implementation.
In May 2010, TRC had called for consultancy services to suggest ways to introduce mobile phone number portability that will allow subscribers to switch networks while using the same number. A year later, the World Bank had selected a British consultancy firm to commence consultations with mobile sector stakeholders on the possible introduction of MNP in Sri Lanka
When asked what the recommendations/findings were from the British consultancy firm that had been tasked with providing consultations, the Director-General said that he did not remember it as the report was submitted more than two years ago.
- See more at: http://www.nation.lk/edition/biz-news/item/25708-trc-scraps-mnp-plans.html#sthash.NNVpbhHR.jytSreNV.dpuf
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