Bulgarian wireless carriers at odds over mobile number portability

Bulgaria’s 3 wireless telecom operators have clashed over the approach that should be taken to subscribers changing carriers that want to keep their mobile phone number, it transpired after the Communications Regulation Commission adopted the rules for the mobile number portability. The service should be available from January 1, 2007. A year later, the carriers should have a joint database with all numbers that have migrated between cellular networks. According to Greek-owned Globul, one obstacle facing the rollout of the new service is the position of rival Mobiltel which is insisting that each telecom carrier should establish its own database. This means incoming calls to a Mobiltel number that has moved to another network will have to be routed through the Mobiltel network first, adding to the call tariff, said Globul. Creating a joint database is costly option that will take at least a couple of years, said Telekom Austria-owned Mobiltel. The telecom regulator is urging the carriers to adopt both approaches to ensure the service is up and running by January 1, 2007. The carriers have so far been mute on what extra-cost add-ons the new service will have for the end-user. Globul estimates the cost per operator at a six-figure amount in euro. That is in sharp contrast to Mobiltel’s estimates which range between 8- to 9-figure sums. The adoption of mobile number portability by other markets has shown that no more than 10% of existing subscribers take advantage of the service

Source- http://news.dnevnik.bg

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