MNP '100% guaranteed'

By Damaria Senne, ITWeb senior journalist

Johannesburg, 02 Nov 2006

South Africans can be 100% assured that mobile number portability (MNP) will be implemented on 10 November, as scheduled, says Paris Mashile, chairman of the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA).

Speaking at the launch of the MNP awareness campaign in Sandton, yesterday, Mashile took a swipe at detractors who fear MNP could be postponed for the third time.

"Detractors can be 100% assured that MNP will happen," he said.

The aim of the campaign, run in conjunction with Vodacom, MTN and Cell C, is to inform and educate South African consumers regarding what MNP is and the benefits it holds.

Consumers will have choice, mobile operators will make profit and ICASA, as well as government, will have succeeded in stimulating competition in the market, Mashile claimed.

Clive Fagan, GM of the Number Portability Company, said live trials, which started this week, involve testing calls from beginning to end, to ensure the process runs smoothly.

Fagan again emphasised the fact that the back-end of MNP implementation is not as easy as some stakeholders make it out to be.

In addition to connecting the three mobile operators and eight service providers to ensure the smooth transmission of ported calls, all parties also needed to ensure infrastructure was in place to support the process, he said.

MTN is confident customers wishing to join its network would do so comfortably, without glitches, while Cell C has already begun running MNP advertisements.