From April 1, 2011 it will be possible for mobile phone subscribers in Kenya to switch to another service provider and retain their number.
Many are thrilled that after lots of debate mobile number portability (MNP) is a reality.
I think there is way too much hype about mobile number portability. I doubt it will be used by more than 0.045% (10,000 of the 22 million mobile phone users in Kenya) in the next one year.
As Mwenda Njiraini, the Project Manager at the Communications Commision of Kenya (CCK) so ably communicated during the breakfast show on Capital FM. The goal of mobile number portability is to lower switching costs. The underlying assumption is that the switching costs are high. I disagree.
It only costs KES 50.00 ( USD $0.60) to buy a SIM card. It costs an average of KES 2.00 (USD $0.024) to send an SMS from either of the 4 mobile phone operators in Kenya to another network. It is therefore relatively inexpensive to switch. If I have 1,000 contacts saved in my phone it would cost me KES 2,000 to notify all of them that I have a new number. I estimate that this would take about 4 hours to do if you do not have a phone that can send an SMS to all your contacts.
I recently switched cell phone numbers from Airtel to Safaricom on my work phone number and the process was very simple. At most a few people may have had difficulties reaching me.
For those in business and feel their contact information is more precious, we already have a Kenya solution. Notify all your contacts that you are switching telephone numbers and then maintain the new and old numbers and carry two phones or one phone with 2 SIM cards, until you are satisfied that all your current and potential customers know your new number.
Those that chose to move with their mobile number will face the prospects of downtime if there are any problems after the process has begun. I doubt that the networks will allocate much of their resources to expedite this process, especially for the network losing a client. With the reduction in the average revenue per user and that most mobile phone users have prepaid accounts there is little incentive for the receiving network to allocate significant resources to mobile number portability.
Post paid customers who have contracts and/or locked phones will face even greater difficulty because they will have to settle accounts and make all pending payments before they can move to another mobile service provider.
It is not a good sign that there is no information on the home page of the CCK website about the mobile number portability. The regulations issued in 2004 are available on the regulations page of the CCK website. Porting Access Kenya Ltd. has been registered to manage the process but they have not offered any information on the process. This would suggest that come April 1, 2011 you need to check with your mobile operator or the one you want to move too.
Now I confess I have not switched mobile phones from one network to another but my experience switching website domain names between registrars taught me that you only go down that road if you must. It takes way more time, communication and pain than one ever anticipates!
Many are thrilled that after lots of debate mobile number portability (MNP) is a reality.
I think there is way too much hype about mobile number portability. I doubt it will be used by more than 0.045% (10,000 of the 22 million mobile phone users in Kenya) in the next one year.
As Mwenda Njiraini, the Project Manager at the Communications Commision of Kenya (CCK) so ably communicated during the breakfast show on Capital FM. The goal of mobile number portability is to lower switching costs. The underlying assumption is that the switching costs are high. I disagree.It only costs KES 50.00 ( USD $0.60) to buy a SIM card. It costs an average of KES 2.00 (USD $0.024) to send an SMS from either of the 4 mobile phone operators in Kenya to another network. It is therefore relatively inexpensive to switch. If I have 1,000 contacts saved in my phone it would cost me KES 2,000 to notify all of them that I have a new number. I estimate that this would take about 4 hours to do if you do not have a phone that can send an SMS to all your contacts.
I recently switched cell phone numbers from Airtel to Safaricom on my work phone number and the process was very simple. At most a few people may have had difficulties reaching me.
For those in business and feel their contact information is more precious, we already have a Kenya solution. Notify all your contacts that you are switching telephone numbers and then maintain the new and old numbers and carry two phones or one phone with 2 SIM cards, until you are satisfied that all your current and potential customers know your new number.
Those that chose to move with their mobile number will face the prospects of downtime if there are any problems after the process has begun. I doubt that the networks will allocate much of their resources to expedite this process, especially for the network losing a client. With the reduction in the average revenue per user and that most mobile phone users have prepaid accounts there is little incentive for the receiving network to allocate significant resources to mobile number portability.
Post paid customers who have contracts and/or locked phones will face even greater difficulty because they will have to settle accounts and make all pending payments before they can move to another mobile service provider.
It is not a good sign that there is no information on the home page of the CCK website about the mobile number portability. The regulations issued in 2004 are available on the regulations page of the CCK website. Porting Access Kenya Ltd. has been registered to manage the process but they have not offered any information on the process. This would suggest that come April 1, 2011 you need to check with your mobile operator or the one you want to move too.
Now I confess I have not switched mobile phones from one network to another but my experience switching website domain names between registrars taught me that you only go down that road if you must. It takes way more time, communication and pain than one ever anticipates!
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