Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III has urged the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to direct telcos to adopt the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) to promote competition.
In a report by Manila Bulletin, the MNP feature allows subscribers to retain their mobile number even when changing from one network carrier to another. According to Pimentel, the right of the consumer to retain their mobile phone numbers forces the telcos to improve their services.
“If we are unhappy with our current provider, we should be able to bring our business elsewhere; if we see a competitor providing better deals, then we should be able to switch with as little inconvenience as possible,” Pimentel said. “It should be clear: the NTC should be on our side, not on the side of the telcos. The NTC should encourage real competition and give us the power to choose and help us force telcos to improve data speeds, to provide clearer voice calls, to eliminate dropped calls, and to ensure that our text messages arrive on time.”
Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand, are just some of the Asia-Pacific countries that have adopted MNP.
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source: Manila Bulletin
Mobile Number portability will encourage competition and improvement of telco services. This is seen in counries with MNP. Even 3rd world countries like Ghana and Brazil have this in place. It is not a matter of cost however it is a matter of the governing body to force it to telcos.