You still can't take it with you

According to the timetable created by the Office for Telecommunications and Post Regulation (URTiP), mobile phone subscribers should have been able to change their telecom sevices provider whilst keeping their old number starting from October 10. Mobile-phone number portability, included in the new Telecommunications Law and required by the EU, has encountered opposition from providers from the very beginning. The introduction of mobile phone number portability has been postponed by the regulator a few times already, most recently in February.

Three telecommunications providers challenged URTiP's decision in court. Polkomtel, the provider of Plus, claimed that the regulator hasn't laid out  the necessary technical guidelines to make MNP (Mobile Number Portability) possible. Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (PTC), provider of Era, on the other hand, claims that the regulator's president should have set one timetable for all three operators, instead of three separate ones.

A lost cause

"The accusations are absurd. The regulator may suggest a few (widely known) solutions, but it is up to the operators to reach an agreement," independent IT and telecom expert Tomasz Kulisiewicz said. He points out that the operators have had more than a year since the introduction of the Telecommunications Law to prepare themselves to make this service work.

Polkomtel lost its case as the court ruled that it is not URTiP's responsibility and not within its competences to set technical requirements for the providers. However, Polkomtel's legal advisor promised to appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court (NSA), so the legal battle is still far from over.

"I'm surprised that the operators are defending a lost position," Kulisiewicz said.

Long history

Number portability was first introduced in Hong Kong and Singapore in the mid-90's and in the UK and the Netherlands in the late 90's. In the first three years of the service about 5 million out of 7 million mobile-phone users in Hong Kong changed their operators, taking their numbers with them. "But today only around 5 percent of subscribers in the world are using it," says Kulisiewicz.

Poland is one of the few European countries where it is still not possible to change your provider while still keeping your original number. The system was introduced without problem in Hungary and Slovakia and is working well. In the Czech Republic the introduction process was halted by the ongoing court case between T-Mobile and the government regulator over fixed-time contracts. Kulisiewicz expects that the fixed-time contracts will also cause some problems in Poland. Operators sell phones worth a few hundred złoty for zł.1 but in return the purchaser signs a contract keeping them with that operator for a fixed period. If during that period the user wants to change their service provider, a way to regulate the debt which the user still hasn't paid back has to be found.

Obstacles ahead

Kulisiewicz wonders why the providers are defending a lost case, as MNP is required by European Union law. "Every operator in Poland is in some way part of a large international capital group that comes from a country where number portability has been available for at least a few years."

"Why was it possible to introduce this service in Hong Kong nearly 10 years ago and it is not possible to do it in Poland?" he asks.

Despite the ongoing court cases, the appeals and further obstacles ahead, the operators have introduced a pilot program for number portability. However, due to a translating mistake ("user" was translated as "subscriber" which in Polish applies only to contract clients) MNP in Poland will not apply to pre-paid users. Also, telecommunications officials are worried that problems may arise with incoming calls. The pilot program should last approximately until the end of the year.