FREEDOM OF CHOICE

On hearing about the attractiveness of tariffs offered by a mobile communications operator, many of us have periodically considered changing their phone number. Only a handful of people have actually done so because for many this process involves the additional hassle of telling everyone in their phonebook that they are changing their number. The Mobile Number Portability (MNP) service is meant to address this problem.

Given the fast-growing telecommunications sector in Azerbaijan, this process may provide an additional incentive to grow. The possibility of switching to another operator, without changing one's subscriber number, may have a considerable impact on the alignment of forces on the cellular communications market in Azerbai-jan.

New wave of competition

Everybody knows that the mobile communications market in Azerbaijan is currently controlled by three operators - Bakcell, Azercell and Azerfon. In a race for new subscribers they continue to make special offers , offer new services and decrease tariffs. However, given the satiated market, it is becoming increasingly more difficult for the operators to increase their profits, while requirements set for them keep getting tougher. In the meantime, the main reason subscribers change their operator is that they look for a better offer.

The MNP service - initiated by the Communications and Information Technologies Ministry (CITM) - is called upon to play an important role in the creation of a new wave of competition, in particular in the race for quality and affordability of services provided by the operators. In essence, number portability implies that a subscriber changing his or her operator will be able to keep their phone number completely (together with the prefix allocated to the operator - 050, 051, 055, 070, and 077).

Most experts believe that the Azerbaijani mobile communications market is over-satiated already and is at the stage where introduction of MNP is considered to be a timely move. This is something that should force the operators to make additional efforts to keep their subscribers and provide more attractive services in order to get more subscribers. In the meantime, the operators themselves vary in their assessment of how well prepared the market is to accept the MNP service. The operators that have a high share of the market are not interested in MNP being introduced because many subscribers for whom it is important to keep their number may be prompted by this service to change their operator if a competitor's offer is more attractive.

One way or another, the application of the service depends on the technical preparedness of the networks of the operators and their infrastructure as a whole. In its essence, MNP is one of the components of the billing systems of the operators and for it to be used additional hardware solutions need to be installed on the networks and the solutions should be integrated with each other. One of the main aspects is that this service should be launched by all of the three operators simultaneously, which, according to information received from the CITM, will take place in the very near future. It also important that the migration process should take place over a short period of time which, correspondingly, depends on agreement among the operators and rules set in the market. Globally, the MNP service enjoys a great popularity in areas where the transfer of a number takes the shortest period of time.

Rules of the game

The players in the mobile communications market agree that the application of the MNP service will conform to the interests of the subscribers and an important aspect in this cause was the presence of a relevant legislative framework which would protect their interests. The rules for rendering the MNP service in mobile networks, set by the CITM in September 2012, were prepared in line with the law "On telecommunications" and recommendations by the International Telecom-munication Union (ITU).

The possibility of migration from one network to another is defined as follows: to transfer a number in mobile networks, a subscriber (a legal entity or an individual) must submit to the receiving operator an application form (two copies) signed by the subscriber and a representative of the mobile operator. An individual needs to submit a copy of their ID (and produce the original), while a legal entity needs to submit a copy of their certificate of state registration and registration with a tax body. The contract signed earlier with the transferring operator must be terminated and a new one must be must be concluded with the receiving operator in whose network the subscriber number will operate.

The receiving operator must - within one day - send to the transferring operator an electronic application form and information about the subscriber. Then follows the process of coordination between the transferring and the receiving sides, for which two days are provided. The transferring side has no right to require additional information not envisaged by the procedures or to reject its responsibilities. The timing for the migration of the subscriber number is set by the receiving operator. The MNP service will be provided free of charge.

It should be said that the experience of countries that are already providing the MNP service shows that it is introduced gradually, and, depending on demand, this process may last two to three years. As world practice shows, there is no massive outflow of subscribers after MNP is introduced and, on average, about 20 per cent of subscribers use the service. Certainly, this is not a big number. Albeit, if all these subscribers switch to one specific operator this will be enough to destabilize the market. 

One way or another, the usefulness of this service for subscribers is obvious- with the introduction of MNP, the mobile communications operators will be fighting for customers exclusively using marketing initiatives, and this should facilitate an improvement in competition in the market. Consider-ing the fact that the CITM also completely supports this initiative, one can bravely believe in its successfulness. The main thing is for the launch, which has been postponed several times now, to take place in the next few months...