Europe : 3 UK welcomed the publication of Ofcom’s proposals and further consultation on mobile number portability (MNP), the process by which a customer can keep their mobile number when they move from one mobile operator to another. 

Kevin Russell ( left ) , CEO of 3 UK, said:

“This is good news for UK consumers. Letting people move their number to a new network quickly and easily will encourage competition and greater choice. These changes will bring down prices for all UK mobile users.”

He continued: “However, we think that the proposal, which gives the industry over 26 months to implement these changes when it could easily be done in 12 months, is unnecessarily generous.  The current porting system is letting down UK consumers and there must be a greater sense of urgency to fix it.”

“In the US and Canada, it took 12 months to implement a similar system to that being proposed for the UK, but covering over 190 million phone numbers across both markets and incorporating over 100 fixed line and mobile operators.”

He added, “3 will respond to the next stage of the consultation by publishing a detailed proposal laying out how consumers can benefit from a vastly improved system ahead of the timetable proposed.  We hope the rest of the industry will step up to the plate and will work to put this new system fully into place by September 2008.”