ECTEL announces launch of MNP across all member states

Regional regulator the Eastern Caribbean Telecommunications Authority (ECTEL), which oversees activities in the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), has announced that from today (3 June) mobile number portability (MNP) will be launched in all five member states. The formal announcement was made on 23 May at the 39th ECTEL Council of Ministers meeting in Saint Lucia, ending the long-running saga to bring number portability to fruition – ECTEL originally launched the MNP project back in 2015 with a decision by the ECTEL Council of Ministers to implement local number portability for both fixed and mobile phones. The watchdog confirms that MNP will be available to post-paid and pre-paid users across all five ECTEL states, as long as the customer’s number has not been barred, restricted, suspended, or handsets reported stolen or lost to the current provider. Whilst there will be no charges for porting a number, the current service provider may levy a fee for a new SIM card and to unlock the handset, before the number is carried across.