[kictanet] FW: Press Release on update on Mobile Number Portability

Wed Apr 13 15:42:58 EAT 2011

fyi.
--- On Wed, 4/13/11, Wambua, Christopher <Wambua at cck.go.ke> wrote:

From: Wambua, Christopher <Wambua at cck.go.ke>
Subject: FW: Press Release on update on Mobile Number Portability
To: "Alex Gakuru" <gakuru at gmail.com>, "Walubengo J" <jwalu at yahoo.com>
Cc: "CPR team" <CPRteam at cck.go.ke>
Date: Wednesday, April 13, 2011, 3:34 PM

Please share this listers

      P  R  E S S   R 
    E  L  E  A  S  E 

Resolution of Mobile
Number Portability hitches 

The
Commission yesterday 12th April 2011 convened a meeting of the
Technical, Process and Legal Working Groups of Mobile Number Portability (MNP)
to review the progress of the exercise that begun about two weeks ago. The
meeting also came in the wake of receipt of complaints from some porting
subscribers who had failed to switch over to their preferred network smoothly.
The main objective of the meeting was to resolve the disputes with a view to
ensuring that mobile subscribers enjoy seamless service as they exercise their
right of choice. All mobile operators including M/s Porting Access Kenya (i.e.
the Porting Service Provider) attended the meeting. 

The
following are the main issues discussed and agreed on in yesterday’s meeting: 

1.     
Technical hitches:  It
was reported that some networks have been experiencing some technical glitches
in implementing Mobile Number Portability (MNP), leading to overshooting of the
agreed porting timelines and unsatisfactory customer experience. As a result of
the technical challenges, some ported numbers were not accessible in the
recipient networks, resulting in non-seamless customer experience.  

Assurances were
given that the causes of the glitches had been identified and to a large extent
resolved, and that the pending ones would be sorted out by the end of today (13th
April 2011).  

2.     
Inadequate knowledge on the part of
operators’ customer care representatives: 

It was acknowledged that some customer care
representatives of the mobile operators are not fully conversant with the
porting procedures. This has resulted in misinformation of porting subscribers
at the mobile operator customer outlets, which in some instances has in turn
led to abortion of porting requests.  Operators reported that they had
already put in place measures to address this problem. It was agreed that
mobile operators would ensure that their customer care representatives were
well versed with the porting procedures. 

3.     
Creation of a single point of
contact: 

It was noted
that the prevailing multiple points of contact of the technical teams in the
various mobile networks was hampering speedy resolution of technical
challenges, leading to frustrating delays and fuelling distrust. To address
this concern, the four mobile operators exchanged names of the first point of
contact in their respective technical teams. 

4.     
Need for good faith and mutual
trust: 

The importance
of acting in good faith and maintaining mutual trust was acknowledged and
underscored. The mobile operators resolved to avoid unnecessary suspicion and
misunderstanding, and agreed to cooperate to ensure that Mobile Number
Portability is implemented to the letter.  

5.     
Strict adherence to the MNP
implementation framework  

The meeting resolved on the need to strictly
follow the implementation framework, both regulatory and contractual, of MNP in
order to avoid unethical practices and blatant violation of MNP guidelines and
licence conditions.  In this regard, it was resolved that all mobile
service providers would observe provisions relating to: 

·        
Prohibition
of attempts to win back customers at the point of porting or to prevent them
from porting out 

·        
Full
disclosure of the terms and conditions as well as implications of porting to
the customer 

·        
Strict
adherence to timelines provided for in the MNP implementation framework 

·        
Consumer
information on the step by step porting procedures.  

On
account of the success realized during the meeting, the Commission has deferred
the CEOs’ meeting scheduled to be held this afternoon to provide industry
players with time to implement the resolutions agreed upon in yesterday’s
meeting. When convened, the CEOs’ meeting shall review the progress made in
implementing MNP in the context of resolutions agreed on in yesterday’s
meeting.   

Furthermore,
I wish to confirm that there has not been any sabotage among operators in the
implementation of MNP as has been reported in sections of the media. I would
like to assure Kenyans that most of the technical glitches are now under control
and we shall continue monitoring progress to ensure that deadlines are met. As
at this morning, the existing backlog of porting requests had been
cleared.   

I
also wish to correct the wrong perception that the success of MNP is only seen
in the number of subscribers crossing between networks. The real success of MNP
is the freedom of choice and flexibility that it offers to subscribers in being
able to change service providers without any inhibition of any nature. Since
inception of the service, more than 8,000 subscribers have made porting
requests (this figure covers up to today morning).  

Charles
J.K. Njoroge, EBS 

Director-General  

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