Geographic number portability (GNP) for consumers has been postponed by a month, converged communications network operator Neotel said on Wednesday.
This followed a request to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) by both Neotel and its rival, Telkom, for more time to iron out minor technical problems.
These problems had not been anticipated at the time of the original scheduling of the phased roll-out of GNP, Neotel said in a statement.
GNP deals with fixed-line numbers, such as 021 and 011, that indicate a subscriber’s geographic location. GNP allows subscribers to change their fixed-line operator without changing their fixed-line numbers.
Phase one of GNP, which was focused on businesses using blocks of 1 000 or 10 000 numbers, was initiated on May 18 2009 and was now complete, Neotel said.
Scheduled by Icasa to start on April 18 2010, phase two — aimed at consumers — will now start on April 26 2010.
“We were early advocates of GNP because it is one of the most important aspects of deregulation of the South African telecommunications landscape,” Angus Hay, executive head of technology at Neotel, said.
“It gives subscribers true freedom of choice as to their fixed-line service provider and they can keep their fixed-line number which, for most people, is an integral part of either their home or business lives, while being able to shop around for better rates and services from carriers.”
Hay added that GNP forced service providers to be competitive not simply on price but on the type and range of services they provided.
“Only the most agile and customer-focused of service providers will survive,” he said.
Hay added that Neotel was confident not just of surviving but of prospering in such a competitive market.
“For that reason, we’re looking forward to helping to ensure, in this next month, that there will be no glitches once GNP for consumers is launched.” — Sapa