Press News

05 13, May 13, 2003

On 12 May, Népszava published an article on conditions of call number portability between service providers and the possible solutions.

Call number portability increases call charges - Call forwarding does not encourage competition

Under the provisions of the Act on Communications, the conditions of call number portability between service providers should have been implemented already as from 1st January this year. The relevant government decree has not yet been elaborated and the competent ministry would choose call forwarding as a temporary solution. However, this would not serve the original objective of competition between service providers, said Csaba Elekes, Head of Department, PKI Telecommunications Development Institute, Matáv.

In the case of a temporary solution, the subscriber who needs call number portability retains his original call number, but would also be given a new number by the new service provider for termination of calls. In the original exchange of the subscriber requiring call number portability, the "call forwarding unconditional" service has to be activated to the termination call number and that is only possible for a live call number installed in the target exchange, explains the expert. In his opinion, this solution also poses numerous technical problems in addition to being expensive and not motivating the market players for real competition. On the one hand, the analogue exchanges cannot forward calls for technical reasons. And, on the other hand, instead of simplifying things for the subscriber, it would make his life more complicated because he would have to make do with two live call numbers for a good while. In addition, the call number issued in the new exchange that receives the subscriber can be called directly too, and due to the call number identification presentation it can also be called back. And, if the country switches over to the final solution next January, everyone will have to forget this second number.
Since the subscriber who changes service provider will be identified by the new service provider with the termination number registered in the reception exchange and this number will be used in all of his calls as "A" number, he would have to be registered by all service providers with this number. If the subscriber already had a selected service provider, his contract has to be modified due to change of service provider in spite of retaining the original call number. Even if the subscriber intends to choose a long distance or an international service provider after having changed his service provider, he would have to be registered with his termination number. At the launch of the permanent solution, the termination number used until that time will be cancelled and the contract will have to be amended at the selected service provider for the original portable call number.
In the case of the call forwarding solution, the call completion for all calls is implemented on the network of the earlier service provider who transfers the subscriber, that is, via the original exchange of the subscriber, making it very expensive, the expert added.