Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Major General Shahzada Alam Malik (Retd) has said that Pakistan is ready to share its experience and provide training to the countries who intend to implement Mobile Number Portability (MNP).
Talking to newsmen here on Wednesday after opening the three-day Workshop on "Implementing MNP" he said it is honour for Pakistan to be selected by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for imparting training to the participants. The workshop is being organised by PTA under the aegis of ITU Centre of Excellence Network.
He said that this workshop has provided the Pakistani regulator an excellent opportunity to share its experiences and expertise in the implementation of MNP. It would be willing to send its experts to the regional countries to help them implement MNP.
Chairman PTA further said that more than 100,000 cellular mobile subscribers have availed the service of MNP in the country since the service started five months ago. He said that Pakistan is the first country in the region to have provided the MNP services to its 64 million mobile subscribers.
He said the service is aimed at strengthening further healthy competition in the market and to improve the quality of service of the country's rapidly growing cellular mobile sector. Appreciating the co-operation extended by the country's mobile companies towards the implementation of MNP. He said the service has been launched in Pakistan with a cost of around 150 million dollars.
On the occasion, Member Telecom, Ministry of IT and Telecom, Nooruddin Baqai said, establishment of ITU's Centre of Excellence Node in Pakistan is recognition of the country's sound economic liberalisation policies and the unprecedented growth that has been witnessed in the country's telecom sector.
He said MNP has empowered the mobile subscribers and they enjoy their right to choose any mobile service provider while retaining their numbers. On this occasion, Head ITU Regional Office for Asia Pacific, Dr Eum-ju Kim said in a message that workshop on "Implementing MNP" is an excellent example of PTA's willingness to share the experiences and lessons learnt while implementing it in Pakistan.
The resources available and the wide experience of PTA in this area is an asset to the programme. Member (Technical) PTA, Dr Muhammad Yaseen, in his presentation, explained the process of implementation of MNP in Pakistan.