• Intended to create public awareness, infrastructure readiness

The launch of the number portability facility will be delayed by a further three to four months in order to create public awareness and infrastructure readiness, the Ministry of Digital Economy reveals. 

Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, Ministry of Digital Economy Acting Secretary Waruna Sri Dhanapala revealed that following a recent discussion with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and subsequent instructions received, the launch of the number portability facility was now expected to be delayed by an additional three to four months.

“We need to review further some of the things that have been commenced under the number portability facility. We discussed these matters with the President and received some instructions,” he stated.    

Dhanapala further noted that the remaining work on the number portability facility involved raising public awareness and ensuring that the necessary infrastructure was fully ready. 

“We have to create public awareness and have infrastructure readiness so that citizens can switch from service providers. Accordingly, the Government’s role is to create awareness while the telecom operators must strengthen their capacity.”

For the purpose of implementing the number portability facility, a consortium of telco operators was established in 2022 to handle the clearing processes and porting facilities of the proposed facility.  

Number portability, which enables the switching of mobile and fixed-line numbers across competing service providers, is a customer facility widely practised internationally and is a key facet of a liberalised telecommunications market.

This service was introduced as early as the mid-1990s in Hong Kong, the US, Canada, and Europe, and also in several Asian countries such as Singapore in 1997 and Pakistan in 2006.