Orange CEO calls for action on number portability

NEWS Orange CEO, Hans Roger Snook, has warned UK mobile operators to speed up the number portability process or it will ask telecoms regulator, Oftel, to intervene. Number portability became mandatory at the beginning of this year and could save end users administrative headaches and subsequent costs. However, Snook claims number portability is not yet accounting for many of its customers gains despite the demand, and until the process is made easier it won't take off. At the moment, the process can take up to a month between requesting a change and being completed. Snook claimed that could be massively shortened. "We know that other networks are making number portability more difficult. We want to see a time when people can walk into a shop and switch operator by the time they leave. If the other operators don't become more co-operative, we may have to ask Oftel to get involved," he said. Orange's UK group commercial director, Richard Brenner, argued it is technically possible to achieve this goal. "We are trying to automate the process - we have the capability in our IT systems - but there is reluctance by the other operators to adopt the same technology. They are still relying on the paper and fax method." At a briefing last week, David Edmonds, director general of Oftel, said the number of complaints being received about mobile phone services had risen to account for 40 per cent of all complaints in the first six months of the year. He added that a large number of these complaints were about the difficulty customers are encountering when trying to keep the same telephone number while switching operator. The other mobile operators, Vodafone, BT Cellnet and One2One, denied they are dragging their heels - a spokesman for BTCellnet said: "All four networks are operating under exactly the same process - including Orange."