Cellular6.04.2013

Surprising mobile porting numbers

By Staff Writer

Cell C Telkom Mobile Vodacom MTN mobile operators

Cell C said that around 8 times as many people port from Vodacom and MTN to Cell C as the other way around. This is despite a very ineffective porting system.

Cell C CEO Alan Knott-Craig told MyBroadband that around 6,000 people port to Cell C every week, and that it is a large net receiver of subscribers through mobile number portability (porting).

However, this number could be much higher. Knott-Craig said that porting should be a very quick and simple process, and should not take more than an hour.

In South Africa porting from one mobile operator to another can take a day or longer. This, said Knott-Craig, is a direct consequence of poor regulation.

The Cell C CEO said that effective regulation will not only speed up the porting process, but also remove obstacles which the large operators implement to make porting difficult to consumers.

Cell C CEO Alan Knott-Craig

Latest porting numbers

According to the Number Portability Company 1,473,012 mobile numbers have been successfully ported from November 2006 to end March 2013. This equates to an average monthly port figure of 19,130.

MyBroadband has received reliable information about South Africa’s porting numbers for the first quarter of 2013, which showed that Cell C was the biggest net gainer through porting.

According to the information received, Cell C gained just over 15,000 subscribers over the last three months.

In comparison, Telkom (8ta) gained 800 new users while Vodacom lost 5,000 subscribers and MTN lost 11,000 users.

March was a particularly strong month for Cell C where it gained 24,000 new subscribers and lost 2,800 – exactly the ratio of 8.6 to 1 which Knott-Craig was referring to.

Mobile Porting: Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and Telkom Mobile

Drop in the ocean

However, when looking at the overall cellular landscape the numbers associated with porting are near-negligible.

Vodacom spokesperson Richard Boorman said that it is important to look at the scale of porting in context.

“The impact of porting is so small that it can only be measured at the level of hundredths of one percent of our customer base, and that’s in aggregate so far this year,” said Boorman.

MTN said that the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is the authorised party that is mandated to release porting statistics.

“By virtue of this being a live process, the numbers are therefore continuously changing. MTN is not in a position to disclose this information which it deems (deleted price sensitive) competitive in nature,” said MTN.

Telkom Mobile was asked about their porting statistics, but the operators did not provide any feedback by the time of publication.