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.
Hit the source link below for the full report.
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.
Much awaited…
National ID system please.
This is good but remember that landline port forward between PLDT, GLOBE and etc. is not possible at the moment. Mobile number port forward is an overkill.
This entails registration of SIM cards, which should also be implemented. New SIM cards should be registered to the buyer’s name.
If this is the case, why not improve telco services first instead of adopting on MNP. Its like your adding a problem to a problem to create a solution for the first problem. Aside from this, only few would benefit on this proposal which as the senator says quoting: “business”.
NTC for a long time has been kneeling on the side of the two telcos, NTC will not initiate any move unless a superior government agency/entity tell so, Palitan na namumuno sa NTC walang kwenta yun.
it’s about time…tagal na itong hinihintay ng mga consumers
Wow, sana matupad agad ito. Pwede na ako magpapalit palit ng network pero ma retain parin number ko.