Azerbaijan, Baku, 10 May / Trend, H. Valiyev /
Mobile networks in Azerbaijan are facing problems related to the introduction of mobile number portability services, the Minister of Communications and Information Technologies Ali Abbasov told Trend.
According to the minister, operators are looking to address these issues and progress will require some time.
"It is not yet possible to give the exact date of this service's launch, however it will be in the near future," Abbasov said.
The system will be coordinated with the Information Centre of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of Azerbaijan. Contracts for the services' launch have already been signed with all three mobile operators (Bakcell, Azercell and Azerfon).
All legal instruments governing the number migration procedure in carrier networks have already been adopted. The necessary technical equipment has already been installed in the central database and test work is underway.
The inter-network number portability service will be free. The service is not available for SIM-cards that are used in Data-cards.
One important part of the agreement is that mobile subscribers can switch carriers for no fee. No agreement would have been reached if this were not the case.
The service will be provided once every three months.
Subscribers will be told which network a person they are calling is on, as the cost of in network calls and calls to other networks vary. This makes subscribers aware of charges made while calling other mobile networks.
The introduction of the MNP service will allow mobile subscribers, in case of a change of operator, to retain their own phone number. Numbers will be transferred with their original designated operator prefix ("050", "051", "055", "070" and "077").