MELBOURNE, Australia-The Australian Communications Authority has released a report on the technical options for implementing Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in Australia. The report recognizes the biggest challenge is choosing the best technology to implement MNP.
As yet, MNP is not fully operational anywhere in the world. Great Britain, at this stage, is most advanced, having extended the “intelligent” routing capabilities of its GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) system. The European Telecommunications Standard Institute (ETSI) aims to have a technical solution by the middle of this year and ready for operation by early 1999.
In its report, the ACA addressed “six network options and possible technical solutions,” including call diversion, intelligent networking and an ETSI GSM-based solution.-PB
