Senegal: MNP to launch September 2015

Senegal’s telecoms regulator L’Autorite de Regulation des Telecoms et des Postes (ARTP) has issued Decision No. 2015-009, which confirms that pursuant to the 23 June meeting of the steering committee for the implementation of mobile number portability (MNP), tests on its introduction started on 22 July ahead of the full-blown launch on 1 September 2015. As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, at the end of last year ARTP said it had pushed plans to launch an MNP regime to February 2015 – despite previous assurances that it would go live in October 2014. It was June 2014 when Abou Lo, former director general of ARTP, said he had signed an edict on MNP guidelines in Senegal, including the process of selecting the firm to manage the running of the single platform for it. Lo’s statement followed a similar announcement in October 2013 in which the watchdog confirmed it was conducting a public consultation on a number portability regime, to help achieve an October 2014 launch. Despite the confident statements, the Senegalese population has been waiting patiently for MNP to go live.