Muhammad Farooq Awan, Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has said that Mobile Number Portability (MNP) customers are most identifiable of all cellular customers.
Mr. Farooq Awan said this in a talk show on Dunya TV.
Mr. Awan’s statement has come just a week after the MNP services were banned in Pakistan for security reasons.
According to Chairman PTA the MNP customers are most identifiable because they go through all the (manual) checks and clearance before switching their mobile network. It merits mentioning here that MNP customers must be given (manual) clearance by the operator for porting out of a network.
Chairman further commented that MNP customers are usually the most loyal and high revenue generating customers for the mobile operators, because such users tend to keep using their numbers for long with high consumption of services.
It maybe recalled that MNP is considered as a landmark achievement for Pakistani Telecom Industry, which not only successfully implemented the service before anyone in the region but also ported at least 25 million customers from one network to the other using the service (till it was banned a week ago).
Ban on MNP along with other measures, to curb illegal sale of SIMs, are taken by the government to tackle terrorism in the country. However, chairman’s statement on MNP is a clear indication that recent directives were issued in a hurry without considering the long-term impact on industry and economy.
Chairman PTA, in the talkshow, committed that authority will re-consider its directives after consultation with the industry. We are told that a meeting of high-ups at celcos and authority is scheduled today to discuss the situation.
Analysts opine that PTA should have considered consulting with the industry prior to issuing the directives and embarrassing the country in international media, at a time when Pakistan is undergoing serious reputation issues.
This is exactly what PTA did while banning the list of words for text messages. Its negligence and lack of homework had caused immense embarrassment to the country in local and international media.
this MNP ban is in the favour of all mobile companies and PTCL
edit: this chairman PTA statement is wrong when Telecom companies started using poor methods for MNP, for example u just show MNP sms to shop dealer, they forward your request by SMS. U are ported.
PTA is supposed to protect consumers too. no?
Me, myself stuck with one network. I was benefiting a lot from MNP facility. It prevented me from changing network.
not mobile numer it prevented you from changing your mobile network
u are not alone i m with u
u are right
u just show MNP sms to shop dealer, they forward your request by SMS. U are ported.
no my dear…. Host network jab tak allow na kray tab tak number port nahi hota. or wo apni pori koshish krtay hain k kisi na kisi tarikay se es number k port hone pay koi objection laga dia jay.
sim to old network ke raza mandi say he jari hoti hay. Laiken new network ka kam hota hay customer ke verification karna phir old network ko request bhejna.
main nay to dost ke khud portout karwai. shop per gaya, us nay kaha 667 wala SMS mangwaon aur aik us shop walay kay mobile number per aur aik mobilink ka short code tha us per bheja. shop walay say sim le aglay din sim port ho gai.
The Chairman is a non professional, non qualified for the job, corrupt person. He knows a shit about telecom or technology or any thing related. He is a bully, who uses the support of a political party to abuse telecom companies, abuse the honest and mint money.
he is an idiot
The policy should be revised and there is a lot of work to. the current sim selling and MNP policy is more vulnerable and can be manipulated as practiced in future, where some numbers were just used only for the purpose of MNP from one to another network and showing false sales to achieve monthly target. I don’t think that normal sim selling should be done through retails as you can not quote a developed country where you can even get replacement activated in a single day. the process in UK to get sim replacement took nearly 48hours, humein just shor krna ata hai jo bi kam ho raha ho us pe tanqeed krni ati hai
I have not met this gentleman but he appears to be the epitome of what this set of brainless people this government has. Absolutely clueless and a yes man of some one pulling the strings.
I don’t think that he has any idea about what Telecommunications is all about. People like him have no idea about the many decades of hard work of many people and generations to bring it to this level.
The way this Government has destroyed institutions and made sure that the infrastructure and reputation is weakened to an irreparable degree, is not just incompetence but appears to be a well laid out plan.
I had predicted a year ago that the the 3G licences cannot be auctioned as long as this government does not come to its senses and stops damaging and silly decisions like banning MNP (maybe thinking that this is an acronym for an abuse!) and shutting down services on whims.
Is there no one with a modicum of sense to advise them of the terrible damage they are doing?