Who will benefit from MNP in Bangladesh?

Is it Grameen phone, Banglalink or Robi? Who will benefit from MNP in Bangladesh? A million Dollar question but answer is very easy. The Upper hand with maximum network facility will get better benefit. But what will people get?

Once the Mobile Number Portability System (MNPS) is introduced in February next year, one of the biggest advantages the mobile phone users would have is freedom.

In the MNPS, a mobile phone user can change his or her operator any time without changing his phone number being used for years.

Talking about the MNPS, one of the Grameenphone officials said if a mobile phone user may get tired of the service of a particular operator for a long time, he or she could switch over to another operator.

As the mobile users would be able to switch over to any operator any time from any old operators, keeping his mobile number unchanged, this would ensure the mobile users’ freedom to choose any of the new packages of any operator.

Officials concerned said once the MNPS is made effective, the monopoly of the cell phone operators would come to an end.

An official of Robi Axiata Limited told Prothom Alo that MNPS is such a system in which the phone users would need to change not a single digit of his phone number, even not a single one of the first three digits which is now used as the code of the cell phone operators, to switch over to new operator.

“If you have a cell number beginning with 017, which is the code of Grameenphone, you will be able to switch over to any other operator without changing the three digits of the code,” added the official.

State minister for posts and telecommunications Tarana Halim on Wednesday said the MNPS would be available for both pre-paid and post paid users from February next.

The state minister said the system is introduced with a view to enhancing the standard of service provided by the mobile phone operators.

The MNPS is being used in more than 100 countries around the world. Bangladesh first took the initiative to introduce the MNPS in 2012.