Ofcom in MNP sticking point

Plans to cut the mobile porting time from a matter of days to a just a couple of hours, by the telecom regulator Ofcom, have been thwarted at the last by minute by Vodafone.

At the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), they were joined by all of the major players including BT, Orange, O2 and T Mobile in their appeal.

The main thing in the long term is having a quick turnaround on mobile phone transfers from one provider to another.

In Ireland, where the main providers are the same as here in the UK, they are able to port a number in around twenty minutes.

The point that Ofcom are trying to achieve here is that it would be better for the entire industry not to take up to a week to port a number in the UK, when in other countries this can be done in a matter of minutes.

The problem for the providers is cost. It is said to run into millions of pounds to implement this process.

However, with mobile saturation looming, the industry will need to do something to make it easier to switch between providers.