The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has decided that by December, next year mobile number portability will be available in Malaysia. This has been available in Australia since September, and more importantly in Singapore since 1997! (read more on mobile number portability).
A proposal has been floating around since 2004, and its going to take them another year to implement it. Three years to conduct research. Datuk Dr Halim Shafie, heading the Commission and all their research has decided that Maxis, Celcom and DiGi are receptive to the idea – so what’s the reason for the deferment?
Healthy competition between three providers is hard to do. Opening that limit up in itself will encourage more competition (even for service reselling, like how B resells Optus). Of course in Malaysia, its all about protecting the connected companies.
“Telcos in those countries have improved their delivery services since MNP was implemented,” he added.
It seems like Halim Shafie knows what MNP will mean for the consumer. Yet, its been dished about for the last couple of years. Let’s hail the day a consumer rights group in Malaysia will actually be taken seriously or perform useful actions.
Technorati Tags: malaysia, mcmc, MNP, mobile, number, portability