Antigua & Barbuda Yet To Implement Number Portability

A year after Eastern Caribbean Telecommunications Authority (ECTEL) member states gave users the option to keep their number and change service provider, for Antigua & Barbuda such an opportunity is still “on the horizons.”

Antigua & Barbuda is not a member of ECTEL.

The provision of cell phone number portability is on the horizons, the Technology Minister informed the Cabinet during their meeting yesterday.

He said, the mechanism or new technology that will allow a consumer to change carrier but retain his/her cell phone number, “will likely take place in the not so distant future.”

The investment in such a system has been undertaken in another Caribbean country, and government says the designers/technicians who helped to make that new system work there have been helpful to Antigua and Barbuda.

They have been retained by the Government to enable number portability to become a reality in this jurisdiction.

Mobile Number Portability became available to post-paid and pre-paid mobile consumers of all service providers within the ECTEL region, as long as the customer’s number has not been barred, restricted, suspended, or handsets reported stolen or lost to the current provider.

There were no charges for number porting.

All porting or switching charges were met by the service provider. However, the current provider may charge for the new SIM card and unlocking the customer’s handset, before the number is ported.

At the 39th ECTEL Council of Ministers meeting last year, they all agreed that the introduction of Mobile Number Portability was one more success of ECTEL’s mission to improve the telecommunications regulatory environment in its Members States.

The members of ECTEL are Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

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