Mobile number portability available in spring 2011 TIRANA TIMES

TIRANA, Dec. 22 – Starting from spring 2011, Albanian mobile phone users will for the first time be offered the mobile number portability, a service enabling mobile phone users to retain their numbers when switching from one mobile operator to another. The agreement with Infosoft Systems, the winner of the international tender to provide the service which should have already been made available, was signed on Wednesday by the head of the Electronic and Postal Communications Authority (AKEP) Pirro Xhixho and Infost’s administrator Grigor Joti.
Speaking at a conference, Innovation and IT minister Genc Pollo said the number portability service will offer more opportunities to mobile users, increased competition for the current four operators and as a result better service and cheaper rates. By spring 2011, mobile phone subscribers will be able to port their numbers to a new mobile operator within two days free of charge.
Earlier this year, NGOs expressed their concern over delays in the implementation of this service whose legal deadline expired in May 2009, delaying procedures to start offering number portability by one and a half years.
The law, which obliges AKEP to guarantee the service under a special regulation determining its application and deadlines, is considered an EU standard, protecting consumers’ rights and interests. The service is currently offered in all EU 27 member countries but not yet in Albania, a potential EU candidate country.
The consumer protection is also foreseen in article 76 of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) Albania has signed with the European Union, in force since April 2009.