NTC prepares rules on phone number portability

The National Telecommuni-cations Commission (NTC) may soon come up with a proposed set of rules on number portability among fixed line and mobile phone operators.

Service provider portability or local number portability (LNP) is a service that will allow landline and mobile phone subscribers the ability to retain their existing numbers when switching from one service provider to another.

When fully implemented nationwide by both wireline and wireless providers, portability will remove one of the most significant deterrents to changing service, providing unprecedented conven-ience for consumers, and encou-raging unrestrained competition in the telecommunications indus-try, industry experts say.

And because providing num-ber portability requires additional investments on the part of operators in terms of network upgrade, some governments, including that of the United States, allowed operators to charge their customers part of their cost in providing this service.

NTC commissioner Ronald Solis said fixed line operators, particularly the major players that include PLDT, Bayantel, Digitel, Globelines, as well as cellular mobile telephone system (CMTS) operators such as Smart, Piltel, Globe Telecom, Sun Cellular currently operating on GSM and 2.5G (general packet radio system or GPRS) as well as those who will eventually be granted licenses to go into 3G or third-generation wireless technology will be covered by this circular.

The commission has included its proposed rules on the allocation and assignment of 3G radio frequency bands a provision that requires spectrum assignees to implement number portability, at their own cost, from the commencement of commercial operations.

However, during a recent public hearing on the proposed 3G rules, Globe Telecom senior vice president Rodolfo Salalima recommended that the number portability requirement be the subject of another NTC circular.

"Considering that the obligations attendant to 3G are already onerous to the operators, requiring 3G carrier to put up with the portability requirement may unduly burden us since it will cost us more," Salalima said.

In the US, porting is done by the subscriber contacting their prospective new carrier, who will start the porting process. The new carrier will first confirm the consumer’s identity and then make a porting request of the old carrier. When consumers go to their new carrier to port a number, they are simply required bring along a recent bill, which will have their correct name and address as it appears in the carrier’s database. Once a valid porting request has been made, the old carrier cannot refuse to port a number. Wireless to wireless porting in the US takes two-and-a-half hours from the time the porting request is made of the old carrier. A wireline-to-wireless port takes longer, around a week.