MNP by end of this year

Qatar’s two mobile operators Qatar Telecom (Qtel) and Vodafone are working with regulator ictQATAR to launch mobile number portability (MNP) in the country before the end of this year, and have contracted Norway’s Systor Group as the technology partner for introducing the service, reports Gulf Times. TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database says that the implementation of MNP in Qatar has been long delayed, with ictQATAR predicting in 2008 that it would be available ‘by mid-2011’, but after that date came and went it forecast a new schedule of ‘summer 2012’, although that timeframe now also looks ambitious.