MELBOURNE, Australia-Australian telecommunications watchdog, the Australian Communications Authority, has returned a favorable report card for the first year of mobile number portability (MNP) with more than 400,000 users switching carriers with their existing numbers.
Australian Communications Authority (ACA) Chairman Tony Shaw said it is also pleasing to see that mobile-phone operators ported more than nine in every 10 mobile numbers within a three-hour period. MNP, introduced at the end of last September, has been good for competition, he said, and given consumers both choice and cost savings.
A recent ACA consumer survey showed that awareness of MNP has climbed steeply, from 41.3 percent in June 2001 to 76.5 percent by May.
