Mobile Number Portability now takes less than 30 minutes on average

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) continues to support and improve number portability in the Kingdom of Bahrain; having introduced number portability regulation and deployed a subsequent system in collaboration with telecoms operators as of July 2011. Since then, residents and businesses in the kingdom have enjoyed the flexibility of transferring their mobile and fixed lines seamlessly between telecoms service providers.

During the second quarter of 2016, the number portability platform recorded 12,923 successful mobile line number portability requests, compared to 21,444 in 2nd quarter of 2015; a variance due to aggressive offers stimulating consumers to change service providers during 2015. Meanwhile, the successful transfer of fixed line numbers reached 152 compared to 305 in 2nd quarter of 2015. The average time is 27.5 minutes for mobile lines transfer and 4 hours for the fixed lines.

Mrs. Taiba Al Binali, Acting Director of Consumer Affairs and Media, stated that, “During TRA’s follow-up of the performance indicators regarding the number portability system, it was found that there are a significant amount of number portability requests which are rejected by the donor operator. As such, the major reasons some number portability requests were rejected is due to consumers providing wrong CPR or Commercial Registration numbers. If they don’t match with the registered subscriber’s fixed or mobile lines, or if the line is out of service, or if the subscriber has a record of bad debt with their current service providers, then the request will be rejected.”

The TRA would like to advise consumers that are willing to port their numbers to submit their requests during official working hours (Sun-Thursday, 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM) for ease of processing  and to get their telephone number ported at the same day. Also, consumers are advised to be aware of their bill issuing date (or Billing Cycle) with their current service provider, to submit the number portability request at least two days prior to the end of this period, in order to avoid double billing from both operators.