Company for mobile number portability eyed for commercial launch in September

The entity formed by three of the country’s mobile telecommunications players to comply with the Mobile Number Portability law will be commercially launched in September this year.

Telecommunications Connectivity Inc. was incorporated in January last year by Globe Telecom Inc., PLDT Inc.’s mobile unit Smart Communications, and third telco player DITO Telecommunity Corporation to implement Republic Act No. 11202 or Mobile Number Portability Act.

The three telcos tapped Florida-based Syniverse Technology as the mobile number portability service provider. 

During a Senate Committee on Public Services hearing on Wednesday, Smart Communications vice president for Regulatory Roy Cecil Ibay said that Telecommunications Connectivity Inc. was originally planned to be commercially launched by June this year.

“We actually submitted an update to the NTC (National Telecommunications Commission) yesterday. The update comes from the mobile number portability consortium which is called the Telecommunications Connectivity Inc., which is a consortium composed of DITO, Globe and and Smart,” Ibay said.

“Original target was to implement in June this year but the pandemic, everything else got affected. We submitted our revised timeline yesterday that by June we will start the inter-operator testing and the full commercial launch will probably be by September this year,” he added.

In 2019, President Rodrigo Duterte in February signed into law the Mobile Number Portability Act, which allows mobile network subscribers to retain their numbers for life despite switching subscription plans or between telecom service providers. 

All public telecommunications entities (PTEs) are mandated to provide prepaid and postpaid subscribers the option to keep their mobile phone numbers free of charge.

The option, however, is allowed only if the subscriber has no financial obligation that must be settled with the original service provider—also called the donor provider.

Companies that violate the provisions of RA 11202 may face fines ranging from P10,000 up to P1 million as well as cancellation of the operating franchise. A subscriber can also receive damages but not exceeding P40,000. — BM, GMA News