The mobile phone operators have sought at least two years’ time for implementing mobile number portability (MNP) as the investment would be impossible to bear in addition to the expenditure of setting up 3G services.
In a letter to the telecom regulator, the Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (Amtob) said they would have to obtain 3G licences and invest a lot of money to roll out the network. It said it would be impossible for the operators to implement the MNP by that time as it involved a large investment.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission had directed the mobile phone operators on June 13, asking them to set up MNP service, which gives users the freedom to switch operators without losing their phone numbers, within seven months.
Amtob Secretary General TIM Nurul Kabir Monday told the Dhaka Tribune: “We have sent a letter to the regulator, clearing our position on the timeframe and are now waiting for them to call a meeting.”
He said: “We can go through case studies of other countries which have established the MNP; but we have found none to have been able to establish it in less than two years.
“A lot of financial, commercial and technical issues are involved with this. So, we need to think more before taking the final decision.”
A number of sources from the operators said the MNP technical readiness could not be established within three months.
“At least Tk7bn is needed to set up the MNP. Before going for this we should rethink about the investment,” Mohammad Didarul Alam, a general manager of Robi, told a group of journalists Monday.
He said Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Cambodia had already halted MNP implementation considering the investment issue.
Pakistan, which was the first in South Asia to set up the MNP, stopped the service after three years of launch on security grounds. “So, we need to rethink the process and we asked the BTRC to sit with us.”
When contacted, a BTRC official said: “The mobile operators are trying to escape implementing the best service to the users.
We may go tough on them for this process.”
According to the MNP implementation guideline, users will be able to enjoy the MNP service by January 2014, including three months for test run on the operators’ side. The service will cost a user maximum Tk50 and an operator will get 72 hours to complete the transfer.
The parliamentary standing committee on the telecom ministry on January 8 last year recommended introduction of the MNP service by that year. The BTRC started the initiative but could not complete it.
India implemented the MNP in 2011, which is handled by a third party. A customer pays Rs19 for availing the service, which takes seven days to port a number from one switch to another. In Thailand, the MNP costs 99 baht while the service is free in Malaysia.
