The details were added (the first version was posted at 14:12)
Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 22 / Trend /
The Azerbaijani Communications and IT Ministry has signed an agreement with mobile operators to introduce a number portability service, the ministry said today.
According to the ministry, the system will be coordinated by the Information Computer Centre of the Ministry.
A decision was made at a meeting at the ministry with the participation of all parties of the project to determine the specific date when the service will be activated.
At present, legal documents were adopted within the project of launching an MNP service. The necessary technical equipment was installed in the operators' networks and the central base and tests have been held.
Earlier, Abbasov said the service will be implemented in mobile networks no later than April 1.
The number portability service in the operators' networks will be free of charge. However, this service is not available for SIM-cards used in Data-cards.
One of the project's important components is the subscriber's migration to another operator without an outstanding bill. Otherwise, this service will not be rendered. The service can be used once every three months.
One of the aspects envisaged by the service is a notification to subscribers about the network they are calling and cost of internal calls. Prices for calls to the networks of other operators vary. The main purpose of these notifications is to warn subscribers about the costs of calls to other operators' networks.
Introducing MNP services will allow mobile users to keep their phone numbers while changing operator.
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) plus a seven-digit phone number.