Digital ministry wants mobile numbers transferred in 2 hours

MOSCOW, Dec 2 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Digital Development Ministry has suggested reducing the time of switching an individual to a new operator, the mobile number portability (MNP) service, to two hours from eight days, according to the ministry’s draft government ruling published late on Tuesday.

“The draft ruling suggests setting the time of transfer of subscriber numbers within two hours for individuals and three hours for companies (from 29 days at present) from the moment of applying by an operator-recipient to transfer a number to the operator of databases of transferred numbers (or later on a subscriber’s request),” an explanatory note to the document read.

The document also cancels the need for subscribers to disclose information about their residence and presence in their MNP application.

“The terms of the bill should be discussed and scrutinized,” an MTS spokesperson MTS told PRIME

Mobile operator VimpelCom, working under brand Beeline, thinks the new requirements should be discussed thoroughly. Mobile operator T2 RTK Holding, working as Tele2, found the new terms unfeasible.

“We think that shorter terms of subscriber numbers transfer under the MNP service to several hours is technically impossible at the current stage of development of connection networks and equipment. However, Tele2 calls for cutting the transfer time by 48 hours to six days from eight since it is technically possible and is aimed at improving the client experience,” the operator’s spokesperson said.

Since 2013, 18.113 million numbers were transferred.

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