New dawn for mobile phone users

File | NATION Mobile service subscribers make calls.  

By  JEVANS NYABIAGE jnyabiage@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Monday, March 21 2011 at 22:00

In Summary

• Subscribers to switch networks without losing their favourite numbers at entry fee of Sh173

A platform that allows mobile phone users to switch operators without losing their numbers starts in 10 days.

Subscribers will also call across all networks at the cost of their new operator. For example those who switch or port to Airtel will be charged Sh1 for on-net calls and Sh3 to other networks.

And if one was to move to Safaricom, they will be charged Sh3 for calls within the network and Sh4 to other networks per minute.

Technically known as mobile number portability service, the technology allows mobile phone subscribers to switch operators at a one-off fee of Sh173. 

The four mobile phone operators in the country — Safaricom, Airtel Kenya, Telkom Kenya and Essar Telecom Kenya Ltd, trading as yu — started technical trials on Friday ahead of the launch on April 1.

The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) said the operators were ready for the launch.

“The service is expected to be commercially available starting April 1, 2011, meaning that subscribers can seek to port their number to the network of their choice,” said CCK director-general Charles Njoroge last week in a statement.

Mr Patrick Musimba of Porting Access Kenya Ltd, the firm carrying out the project, said the operators had started trials. He said they were targeting 300,000 ports (number of subscribers switching operators) a year. The CCK has issued basic subscriber guidelines to porting.

The first step is to inform your current and new operator of the intention to switch. The next move would be to surrender your SIM card to the current provider and acquire another SIM card from the new network.

The service will be activated within two working days after paying the porting fee to the provider facilitating the transfer. However, it would take at least 60 days before switching networks again.

Mr Njoroge explained that subscribers ceased to enjoy services of the previous operator on porting.

For instance, those leaving Safaricom would lose the value added services subscribed for earlier such as M-Pesa. However, they would tap into the services in the new network.

“Mobile number portability is the last stage of competition in a market,” says Mr Njoroge, adding that mobile operators would compete on value added services to retain subscribers. 

Subscribers can look forward to promotions that offer porting for free.

“We expect quality of service, tariff offers, customer service and network quality to be the key determinants of the customer’s choice of the service provider,” said Airtel Kenya managing director Rene Meza.

Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore welcomed the service but downplayed its impact.