Are you ready for Number Portability?

After years of lobby amongst industry players, Kenya is finally set for Number Portability. For, starters, number portability simply means, being able to change network operators with a single SIM that is installed on your phone. You will no longer have to buy dual or triple SIM phones since you will be able to change carrier anytime based on network coverage, quality and price. This will definitely make the already fiery price wars much more stiff. As a subscriber though, one can only be happy because everything is only getting better. Sure thing though, is that, the habit of carrying along multiple SIMs will be a thing of the past.

The Communications Commission of Kenya recently announced a License to a Dutch company known as Porting Access BV,  that will be responsible for setting up the infrastructure, roll out and manage Number Portability as from July.The company will be the intermediary between the subscriber and the different Operators.Exact dates are not disclosed, some sources say that it may be realized in December.
Among the other bidders, were companies such as Seven Seas Technologies from Kenya, Teletech from Slovenia, Saab Grintek Technologies from South Africa and Systor Group of Companies.

Locally, the telecoms have always been on a price war, with offers being rolled out every other day. I even doubt whether the consumer is always able to discern between the mash-up and make a befitting decision. People are almost confused of what to use. This roll out will definitely be something interesting as regards local operators. Safaricom, for some while had always been skeptical about this but now, it's inevitable. What I can assure people is that, Safaricom is Smart. They must be having something in the offing to ensure their command in the voice market. For the rest i.e. Zain, Yu and Orange, must be very happy at this, because it makes the playing ground even more level. Level but not straight if you ask me. They must be more innovative.

TECHNICALITIES. (for techies., depends)

On Number Portability, there are some technical terms that you will definitely not avoid. They include,

Number Portability - Number portability is a telecommunications network feature that enables end users to retain their telephone numbers when changing service providers, service types, and/or locations.
Donor Network - Is the network providing service before porting.
Originator Network - Originating network is the network providing service to a subscriber placing a call.
Recipient Network - Recipient network is the network providing service to a subscriber number after porting.
Terminating Network - Terminating network is the network providing service to a subscriber receiving a call.


Operator portability: refers to the ability of a subscriber to retain the same telephone number when changing from one operator to another.
Location portability: refers to the ability of a fixed telephony subscriber to retain the same telephone number when moving from one physical location to another.
Service portability: refers to the ability of a subscriber to retain the same telephone number when changing from one type of service to another.

As you can see, NMP has quite some technicalities but all this will definitely be abstracted from the common subscriber and one will not need to remember all this. For more details on the implementations read HERE

For now, we can only wait and see how it's received by the public domain.