UK Consults on Speeding Up Mobile Number Portability

The UK's telecoms regulator, Ofcom is to hold a consultation on speeding up mobile number portability between network operators. The UK has already reduced the time it takes to transfer a mobile number from five days to two working days and the UK has shorter porting times than many European countries.

The new consultation sets out options for faster porting including completing the process within two hours or within one working day.

Currently, if a customer wants to switch provider but keep their phone number, they have to contact their original operator - usually by phone - to request a Porting Authorisation Code (PAC) which they then give to their new mobile provider. The consultation seeks views on whether to continue with the current arrangement or to change this to a more immediate process managed by the customer's new provider.

This would mean that customers can avoid the inconvenience of obtaining a PAC from their original provider, although the customer's existing provider does try to use that process to encourage the customer to stay with their existing network. It is doubtful though if the operators would be willing to lose that retention opportunity. There is also the issue of having a third party change a customer's relationship with their mobile network on their behalf - a process termed "slamming" that when misused causes more headaches than it solves.

A separate consultation also published today sets out proposals to simplify the way that calls between mobiles to ported numbers are routed. Estimated savings of around £26 million over ten years could be made by industry as a result of this change.

Ofcom aims to have any new porting process arrangements in place during 2011 and any changes to call routing in place by the end of 2012.

Ofcom's Chief Executive Ed Richards said: "Ofcom would like to see easier, faster and more convenient processes to enable consumers to keep their number when they switch mobile provider. Our proposals take a fresh look at this issue to ensure that consumers are getting the most from their mobile service."

On the web: Ofcom

Posted to the site on 3rd August 2009