EDITORIAL: Mobile number portability will lead to better services

Imagine being able to seamlessly shift across all mobile phone platforms without having to change a single digit of your line number…Imagine using the same number irrespective of the telecom company. That is what is known among the telecommunication crowd as Mobile Number Portability (MNP) and it could soon become a reality for Rwandan mobile phone users. The idea was first mooted in 2001 but stakeholders voted to put it on hold at least until mobile phone penetrations hit the 60% mark. That is now history as the magic figure has been eclipsed. Today, 77.8% of the population (more than 8.7 million) have access to mobile phones and are now ready to embrace MNP. This will spark competition among the providers – MTN, TIGO, Airtel – and consequently improve service delivery. One area that will definitely benefit from this marriage of convenience will be widespread use of 4G LTE that has remained more of a pipedream to many. At present, only one mobile phone provider has made it available for its customers using mobile devices. Other operators, who were lagging behind or had given their customers faster internet traffic as a priority, will have to jump on the bandwagon quicker than expected. The same applies to new technologies; operators will be fighting tooth and nail to retain their customers or attract more, and the only means to achieve that is having an attractive package that includes affordable and innovative avant garde technology. Only then can we be able to brag of a “connected society” that aims at turning the country into a regional IT hub.

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EDITORIAL: Mobile number portability will lead to better services