Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 1 / Trend H. Valiyev /
Introducing a Mobile Number Portability service (MNP) will strengthen Bakcell's position in the Azerbaijani mobile market, Bakcell chief executive director Richard Shearer told Trend today.
He said that there are different reasons why subscribers do not want to change their phone numbers. One of the reasons is that these phone numbers were purchased many years ago and subscribers' friends and colleagues know these phone numbers.
"Bakcell is fully in support of MNP and has been an advocate for its introduction and expects a lot a number of customers who have been "trapped" with their old number to migrate to Bakcell," Shearer said.
Number portability means full migration of a subscriber phone number with the operator's prefix.
Operators have been instructed to use a 10-digit set of subscriber numbers. So, it is necessary to dial operator's prefix ("050", "051", "055", "070" and "077") and seven-digit phone number.
The introduction of the MNP service increases competition and forces operators to take extra efforts to retain former customers while providing more attractive services to attract new ones.