Moving your phone number
In May 2009 the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) announced that the Geographic Number Portability implementation process had started.
At the time ICASA said that Geographic Number Portability (also known as Fixed Number Portability) – the ability of fixed-line customers to switch from one fixed-line operator to another without losing their fixed-line numbers – is set to ‘become effective as from the 18th May 2009’.
“It should be noted that Geographic Number Portability will be implemented in phases with the first phase only dealing with blocks of one thousand (1000) and ten thousand (10000) numbers and more (mostly for corporate customers) and the second phase dealing with individual numbers (mostly for residential customers),” ICASA said in May.
Neotel has now announced that it is getting ready to also port individual customers. “The porting of numbers in blocks of 10,000 or 1,000 has been available for some months now,” says Angus Hay, Executive Head – Technology at Neotel. “Unfortunately that excluded many businesses, as it is only relevant to very large corporations.”
“Some large customers have already ported a number of 10000 and 1000 blocks to Neotel. In addition, we are already testing 100 block porting, and as of April will be able to do 100 block and individual porting for any customer,” he says. “This is what South Africans have been waiting for, of course – the ability to port their individual fixed line telephone numbers.”
According to Neotel geographic number portability brings a new dimension of freedom of choice to the consumer as they no longer have to lose their existing fixed line number when changing service providers. “This truly puts the consumer in charge of their own destiny when it comes to service providers,” Hay concludes.
ICASA ruled on the 18th of December 2009 that ported numbers must be indicated to the consumer by the sound of 3 beeps while a call is being connected, as is currently the industry standard with ported cellular numbers.
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