Islamabad: Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Major General (Retd) Shahzada Alam Malik has said that all preparations for the provision of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) facility to countryâ??s mobile consumers are completed and the system would be launched on March 23^rd as scheduled.

Chairman PTA said this during a visit to Pakistan Mobile Number Portability Limited (PMD) office in Islamabad. Mr. Malik said that with the launch of MNP system, more than 52 million mobile subscribers would be able to avail the facility from the 26th of this month. He said the facility, the first to be introduced in Pakistan in the region would not only encourage healthy competition between cellular mobile operators for quality service and competitive tariffs but would also provide consumers the choice to opt for any mobile service provider while  retaining their mobile number.

During his visit, CEO PMD Dr. Irshad Siddique gave a detailed presentation to the Chairman PTA. Elaborating the mechanism of the porting procedure  Mr Siddique said, with the launch of MNP facility cellular mobile operators would be  able to process porting requests from the Recipient operator to the Donor Operator after completion of the consumerâ??s porting request. The whole process would be completed within 4 working days after which the database of both the operators would be updated electronically to implement the MNP facility.

PMD would have a 14 member dedicated staff. The whole project costs Rs. 4-5 billion with 10-12 m US$ contribution from each mobile operator.

During the occasion Chairman PTA made successful calls to mobile numbers that have already been ported during the soft launch of the facility. Representatives of cellular mobile operators were also present during the occasion.

 

Nabiha Mahmood

Deputy Director (PR)