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Response to Ofcom’s new number porting schedule

Last year Ofcom announced new rules to take the time it takes to move a number from one network to another down from the current five days. By April all networks must be able to port numbers within two days, and by 2009 this must be cut again to just two hours. Ofcom claim that customers are put off switching because the process is so slow and complicated, the new rules are designed to encourage customers to change networks to take up more competitive deals.

Vodafone have lodged a complaint with the Competition Appeal Tribunal, claiming the new ruling is unnecessary and may actually lead to more mis-selling and scams – where customers can be switched quickly and without knowing.

However, Vodafone is mainly complaining about the cost implication, all networks must create a central database of all switched numbers to enable calls to be routed to them directly. Ofcom have estimated the cost for this at £12 million, Vodafone feel it is going to be more like £24 million.

Nine years ago mobile users in Britain were among the first to be able to switch to a new network and keep their existing number, however, we are now well behind other countries who can port numbers much quicker.