M. Bashir...3003(05)-EG-II.....

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ISLAMABAD, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2005

P ART II

Statutory Notifications (S.R.O.)

GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN TELECOMMUNICATION AUTHORITY

NOTIFICATIONS

Islamabad, the 4th July, 2005

MOBILE NUMBER PORTABILITY REGULATIONS, 2005

S.R.O. 763(2005).? In exercise of the powers conferred by Clause (o)

of sub-section (2) of Section 5 of the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-
organization) Act, 1996 (XVII of 1996), the Pakistan Telecommunication
Authority is pleased to make the following regulations.-

PART- I

PRELIMINARY
1. Short title and commencement. — (1) These regulations shall be
called the “Mobile Number Portability Regulations, 2005".

(2) They shall come into force at once.

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2. Definitions.— In these regulations, unless there is anything

repugnant in the subject or context, —

(a) “Act” means the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organization)

Act, 1996 (XVII of 1996);

(b) “Agent” means a retail sales agent authorized by Recipient

Operator to accept requests from Subscribers for MNP and given
direct access to Recipient Operator’s MNP Management Office;

(c) "Authority" means Pakistan Telecommunication Authority;

(d) “Central Database” means the database holding all relevant

details regarding all mobile Subscriber number ranges for all
Operators together with history of any Porting activity for any
particular Subscriber number and is available for port inquiries,
recording Porting request status, and for providing specific
statistical information;

(e) "Donor Operator" means an Operator providing service for a

Subscriber's number before Porting;

(f) “Electronic Process” means MNP Processes using computer

applications to inquire, request and acknowledge and activate
Porting processes;

(g) “Implementation Date” means the date that full MNP services
option shall become available to Subscribers;

(h) “Manual Process” means MNP Processes which involve manual

handling of actions replicating the Electronic Processes;

(i) “MNP Management Office” means a department within an

Operator’s organisation that is charged with responsibility of
managing and co-ordinating MNP processes covering both ported
in and ported out Subscribers;

(j) “MNP Processes” means actions that shall be undertaken by all

Operators to ensure that a Subscriber receives an effective,
efficient and seamless service when Subscriber number is ported
from Donor Operator to Recipient Operator;

(k) “Mobile Communication Service” means a wireless-based

telecommunication service where the terminal equipment may be

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connected to telecommunication system by wireless means and

used while in motion;

(l) "Mobile Number Portability or MNP" means the ability to

retain an existing Subscriber number along with Operator code
while shifting connectivity from one Operator to another Operator;

(m) “Number” means a dialing number allocated to a Subscriber

alongwith prefix code of an Operator;

(n) "Operator" means any entity holding a Mobile Cellular License

authorized and issued by the Authority to provide Mobile
Communication Service;

(o) “Porting” means the process of switching from

telecommunication system of one Operator to another, without
changing Number;

(p) "Quarantine Period" means withholding of a Number from

further use for a period of time to be decided by an Operator but
not less than 180 days, after a subscription has been terminated;

(q) "Range Holder" means an Operator who was originally granted a

specific number range;

(r) "Recipient Operator" means an Operator providing service for a

Subscriber's number after Porting;

(s) "Regulations" means these and other regulations issued by the

Authority from time to time; and

(t) "Subscriber" means any person that enters into a Contract or

Subscription with an Operator for acquiring Mobile
Communication Service.

PART- II

GENERAL
3. Eligibility Criteria for Mobile Number Portability.— (1) All
Operators shall make available MNP to their Subscribers as per these
Regulations.

(2) All Operators shall perform Porting process of Subscribers who

have requested Porting subject to following:

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(a) there is no financial or other contractual liability on Subscriber,

relating to a Contract or Subscription unless otherwise agreed
between the Donor and Recipient Operators;

(b) complete information required by Recipient Operator has been

provided by the Subscriber;

(c) there is no justifiable technical reason, which prevents Porting;

(d) the Subscriber has submitted a written application on prescribed

Form in duplicate to Recipient Operator or its Agent for availing of
Mobile Number Portability; and

(e) recipient operator has intimated Donor Operator of the aforesaid

application submitted by the Subscriber via the MNP process,
which shall also be considered as termination notice by the
Subscriber to the Donor Operator:

Provided that subject to these regulations if the Donor Operator/ Range

holder refuses or does not allow its subscriber to port without any valid reason,
the number requested to be ported shall be considered withdrawn from the said
Donor Operator/ Range holder from the date and time the Donor Operator
refuses or does not allow the Porting and said number shall be ported in
accordance with these regulations without any compensation to Donor Operator/
Range holder.

(3) The Recipient Operator shall after receiving the written application
initiate MNP Processes to deal with request to port.

(4) Recipient Operator shall use Electronic Process, unless valid

technical reasons preclude that then Manual Process need to be used, to ensure
effective and efficient operation of Porting process.

4. General conditions.—(1) The conditions laid down in sub-

regulation (2), (3) and (4) of regulation 3 shall be taken into account by
Operators with relation to MNP and shall form basis of implementation of MNP
in connection with a Subscriber's requirement to port from one Operator to
another Operator.

(2) Following shall be adhered to by Operators to ensure smooth

implementation of MNP for Subscribers to ensure a well-functioning number
portability environment:

(a) Donor Operator shall not prevent a Porting from being completed
that has already commenced, by using rejection codes; and

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(b) legally binding agreements between Operator and Subscriber shall

be respected and followed in letter and spirit;

Provided that under no circumstances shall a Donor Operator be

obliged to carry or handover calls made to ported Subscribers by or
from third party networks to Recipient Operator’s network unless
mutually agreed.

5. General Information.—(1) All operational procedures and

interfaces between Operators shall be decided at commercially agreed upon
terms and in case of disagreement, by the Authority.

(2) Numbers that can be ported include, without exception, all

numbers for which a written agreement exists between a Subscriber and an
Operator.

(3) All subsequent portability shall be handled in the same manner as

the first time. The current Operator shall become Donor Operator and new
Operator becomes Recipient Operator.

(4) If a Subscriber wants to return to any previous Operator, the order

shall be handled like a standard Porting request. There shall be no difference
even if the Recipient Operator was the original Number Range holder.

(5) If, for any reason, a Subscriber wants to end his relationship with
his current Operator, the current Operator shall handle this as a termination in its
telecommunication system and shall reset the status of the number as Quarantine
Period.

(6) Subject to the Regulations, at the expiration of Quarantine Period

the Number shall revert to the original Range Holder for recycling purpose.

PART- III

RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS

6. Rights and obligations of Subscriber.—A Subscriber desirous of
getting his number ported, subject to discharging his contractual obligations with
Donor or Recipient Operator shall have the right to:

(a) use a Number issued in his name on any cellular mobile network
licensed in Pakistan;

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(b) ask Donor Operator through a designated Recipient Operator to

port its active Number to telecommunication system of Recip ient
Operator;

(c) choose services and payment package with Recipient Operator

before or after Porting, which are being provided by Recipient
Operator to its subscribers;

(d) provision of caller line identification or any other supplementary

service without interruption after Porting as was being provided to
him by Donor Operator, subject to right of anonymity of the caller;
and

(e) get Mobile Communication Services from Recipient Operator on

non-discriminatory basis as are being provided by Recipient
Operator to its subscribers.

7. Operators Obligations.—Following shall be the obligations of all

Operators:

(a) to ensure that only one Porting request may be lodged at any one
time;

Provided that any attempt to submit further requests for same

number to same or another Recipient Operator shall be lodged and
all subsequent requests, pending first request, shall be rejected
under intimation to Subscriber with reasons of rejection.

(b) in case there is any unavoidable delay, including delay caused by a

bulk Porting request, in Porting process, the concerned Operator
shall immediately inform other Operator of nature of delay and
expected execution time;

(c) all Porting requests shall be processed in order of receipt;

(d) the 'No service' period, when the service is being disconnected
from a Donor Operator and activated with a Recipient Operator
shall not exceed a period to be mutually agreed by all Operators,
however this period shall not exceed one working day;

Provided that Donor Operator shall log time of such

disconnection and Recipient Operator shall log time of activation
and this log data shall be made available by both operators to the
Authority;

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(e) after activation Recipient Operator shall complete MNP Process by

lodging a MNP completion message in the Central Database which
would activate modification of Subscriber number routing details
immediately;

(f) both Donor Operator and Recipient Operator are bound to perform
deactivation and activation with minimum inconvenience to the
Subscriber; and

(g) a number that is not-in-service may be reactivated on payment of

reactivation charges for same Subscriber only within the
Quarantine Period.

8. Obligations of Donor Operator.—(1) A Donor Operator shall

only accept Number Portability for Subscribers, whose contract does not have a
restrictive covenant and has cleared all his dues.

(2) Once a Subscriber has applied for Porting, the Donor Operator
before Porting out the Subscriber shall not restrict or cease current qualit y and
level of service to the Subscriber during MNP completion process.

(3) For the purpose of completing Porting process, the following shall
be the methods of communication between Recipient Operator and Donor
Operator:

(a) Electronic Means— in the first instance communication between

Recipient Operator and Donor Operator shall be via agreed
Electronic Means; and

(b) Manual Means— should it not be possible to use Electronic Means

for whatever reason, the Manual Process may be used.

(4) Both Donor and Recipient Operator may co-ordinate with each
other and the Subscriber to fix and, if necessary, to change Porting date and
time.

(5) If the applicant is not a registered Subscriber or legitimate user of

the number, the Recipient Operator and the Donor Operator shall not accept a
written application for Porting. If the Porting process has been completed, in
such case inadvertently, it shall be reversed immediately on acquisition of
knowledge.

(6) Donor Operator shall provide detail of Subscriber for provision of

Mobile Number Portability to Recipient Operator during Porting process, if
requested.

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9. Rights of Donor Operator.— (1) Donor Operator may refuse a

Subscriber Mobile Number Portability for following reasons:

(a) contracted services of the Subscriber have been terminated due to

arrears or violations of laws, regulations, code of practices or
service contracts or any other valid reason existed prior to the
Porting request;

(b) subscriber has not cleared his current outstanding dues unless
amount charged is in dispute; and

(c) subscriber has voluntarily signed a Contract with Donor Operator

for a certain period of time, which has not elapsed.

(2) The Donor Operator has right, but not the obligation, to contact the
Subscriber to solve any outstanding issues regarding numbers being ported but
may not use this period to convince or entice the Subscriber to remain with the
Donor.

(3) Donor Operator may withhold Porting request till the Subscriber
discharges all his current financial obligations and clears all known dues till the
time of Porting.

10. Obligations of Recipient Operator.— (1) The Recipient Operator

shall keep and maintain record of application forms as referred to in sub-
regulation (2) of Regulation 3 for at least six months, for inquiry by concerned
Donor Operator or examination by the Authority.

(2) The Recipient Operator shall co-ordinate with Ported Subscriber to

arrange for reasonable date and time of proposed Porting of his number.

(3) `The Recipient Operator shall inform Donor Operator by electronic

means and to Central Database of requesting Subscriber's name, existing number
and date and time of proposed Porting of his number at least seventy two (72 )
hours in advance of proposed Porting date and time, and ensure that a signed
copy of the application form has been sent to the Donor Operator in advance;

Provided that the non-receipt of signed copy is no ground to prevent the

Porting from taking place.

(4) If any difficulty is encountered in the Porting process, Recipient

Operator shall co-ordinate with the Donor Operator to resolve the problems and
keep the Subscriber informed:

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Provided that prior to successful completion of the Porting process,

Donor Operator shall maintain original telecommunications servic es for
Subscribers thereof until the scheduled ‘cease of service’ has been completed.

(5) Recipient Operator and Donor Operator shall, with no permission

to postpone or advance the process, undertake to port the requesting Subscribers
according to agreed date and time.

(6) If a Porting is cancelled by Subscriber at any time before

completion of the process, Recipient or Donor Operator shall inform the other
Operator accordingly.

(7) Recipient Operator shall ensure that Porting order is executed at

the agreed execution date and time;

Provided that Donor Operator has the right to disconnect the service to
the Subscriber after the agreed execution date and time, if Recipient Operator
has not communicated the former, the reasons regarding any delay in execution
date and time of the Porting process.

(8) Recipient Operator cannot charge the Subscriber till the time his
Number is ported and activated on his Telecommunication system.

(9) Recipient Operator shall not prepare or offer any special package
or services to Porting Subscriber meant only for Ported Subscribers.

11. Rights of the Recipient Operator. —(1) Recipient Operator may

seek necessary information for the Subscriber from Donor Operator before or
after Porting.

(2) The Recipient Operator may verify the Subscriber relationship,

against number with Donor Operator, to prevent fraud.

PART- IV

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OPERATORS

12. Interconnect Agreement.—All Operators shall include MNP

clauses in their revised or new interconnect agreements and shall comply with all
reasonable requests for establishment of modification of interconnect agreements
in order to implement MNP which include:

(a) exchanging Porting request related to mobile number portability

for a specific Subscriber;

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(b) use of Central Database; and

(c) annual fee, fixed by the Authority from time to time, for an active
or in-active number shall be paid by the Operator from whom the
Subscriber is receiving service for relevant time and not original
range holder for the said number.

13. Submission of Information. —(1) All Operators shall compile

and submit information regarding ported Subscribers to or from its network to
the Authority on quarterly basis, which shall include:

(a) failure rate of Porting process;

(b) average duration of Porting process; and

(c) additional call setup delay time on average calculated by calling

ported Subscribers.

(2) All Operators as well as PTCL, NTC, SCO, and other

FLL/WLL/LDI service providers shall upgrade their network in terms of
hardware and software to support MNP as per the ITU-T recommendations and
other standardization bureaus to provide all telecommunication services to
ported subscribers.

14. All Operators.—(1) All Operators shall negotiate and shall

develop certain methodology in terms of network codes for authorization for
access to Central Database and Subscriber number routing information prior to
implementation time schedule for MNP.

(2) All Operators shall negotiate with each other to develop and
maintain a technically viable Central Database on mutually agreed terms.

15. Administration of Central Database.—(1) All Operators shall

establish a Central Database to implement Mobile Number Portability in
accordance with these regulations.

(2) Operators shall bear the full financial accountability for the
creation and ongoing operation of Central Database and ensure that good
governance prevails;

Provided that a joint council may be constituted by the Operators to

carry out the tasks under these Regulations;

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Provided further that a supervisory body which has already agreed to by,
the Operators may be treated as joint council for the purpose of these
Regulations.

PART- VI

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE OPERATORS

16. Obligations of Operators.—In order to have a transparent and non-

discriminatory environment for ported numbers the following criteria shall be
taken into account. All Operators shall:
(a) be responsible for administration of ported numbers and maintain
an updated database in their respective systems;
(b) provide updated information to Central Database for all numbers
on their respective networks; and
(c) co-operate with each other in terms of exchange of necessary
information regarding their Subscribers who avail Mobile Number
Portability services.

17. Inspection.— All Operators shall allow official inspection of any

premises by an authorized representative of the Authority at any time and shall
furnish to the representative such information as may be required by him or the
Authority.

18. Usage Records.—Operators shall maintain usage records

including where available, called and calling numbers, date, duration, time and
called number cell, with regards to usage made on its central databases for a
rolling twelve months for scrutiny by or as directed by the Authority or required
by any law enforcement or intelligence agency.

19. Complaints System.—(1) The Operators shall establish an

efficient and easy-to-use system to promptly receive, process and respond to
complaints, claims or suggestions by Operators or their customers.

(2) The Operators shall make all reasonable efforts to resolve

complaints or disputes without delay and without recourse to the Authority.

(3) If a complaint is filed with the Authority in connection with any

dispute among the Operators regarding any matter which is the subject of this
Regulation, the Authority may settle the dispute in accordance with the
procedure laid down in the Interconnection Dispute Resolution Regulations,
2004.

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(4) Without prejudice to the right of appeal and revision established in

Section 7 of the Act, the decision of the Authority shall be binding on the
Operators with regard to any dispute arising among Operators regarding MNP
Process.

20. Code of Practice.—(1) The Operators shall, prior to the

Implementation Date of MNP, publish a code of practices approved by the
Authority.

(2) The code of practice shall include, at a minimum, provisions

covering the following:
(a) protection of privacy of information ;
(b) maintenance of confidentiality of Subscribers’ information, save as
required by the provisions under Section 54 of the Act; and
(c) commitment by the Operators in respect of standard and quality of
services.

21. Privacy of data.—(1) The Operators shall not monitor or disclose

the contents of any usage transaction contained within Central Databases under
its control except to the extent necessary for the purpose of maintaining or
repairing any part of the Central Database or except as required by the Act, the
Rules and Regulations.

(2) The Operators shall take all reasonable measures to safeguard the
databases from unauthorized interception or unauthorized access.

22. Statistics.—(1) The Central Database shall be capable to generate

specific sets of statistics, and make them available to Operators so that they may
be able to make:
(a) financial clearing towards Donor in connection with Porting of
numbers; and
(b) financial clearing towards range holder of fees in connection with
Porting of numbers.
(2) The system shall keep account of number of attempted Porting,
number of successful Porting, and number of failed Porting including cause of
failure.
(3) Operators may use the statistics to generate their own financial data
related to apportionment of monthly usage fees to the Operators.

23. Charges .—(1) Donor Operator shall collect costs, as determined

by the Operators upon mutually agreed terms, incurred on number Porting

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process from Recipient Operator upon successful completion of a ported

number.
(2) All Operators shall coordinate and contribute for implementation
of MNP on mutually agreed terms and conditions either through direct funding
or by agreeing that they may charge for certain types of database access.
(3) All Operators shall provide mobile telecommunication services for
ported and non-ported Subscribers on non-discriminatory basis.

24. Use of Central Database.—The use of Central Database shall:

(a) impose a common set of procedures and timeframes, for each and
every Operator to enable MNP between any two Operators;
(b) enable any and all authorised national and international
telecommunications Operators to obtain the appropriate routing
details for any mobile Subscriber numbers to complete a dialed call
on correct network without in any manner engaging the network of
the Donor Operator unless mutually agreed upon terms;
(c) be a central repository for all released Subscriber numbers, with
the primary purpose being the management of Subscriber numbers
which are in the process of being ported or have been ported; and
(d) non-ported or ported numbers which, through appropriate business
processes, have their status set to ‘ceased’ or ‘blocked’ or ‘not in
service’ remain in ‘Quarantine Period’ before being eventually
‘returned’ to the original number range holder Operator for
recycling.

25. Implementation Date.—(1) All Operators shall commence

providing MNP services to their Subscribers by the Implementation Date as
determined by the Authority.

(2) Subject to sub-regulation (1) any Subscriber may request provision

of MNP at any time from the Implementation Date.

(3) The Implementation Date shall be advertised nationally under the

auspices of the Operator and in conjunction with the Authority.

26. Powers of Authority.—(1) The Authority shall supervise the

process of Mobile Number Portability and may issue guidelines on technical,
management and operational matters from time to time, which shall be followed
by the Operators.

(2) The Authority shall approve a simple, one time and cost-based
Porting tariff.

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(3) The Authority shall ensure that all Operators provide MNP to their
pre-paid and post-paid Subscribers on non-discriminatory basis.

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