After several delays over the past few months, Mobile Number Portability has finally become available in St. Kitts and Nevis and the rest of the Eastern Caribbean member states of ECTEL.
Mobile Number Portability took effect on June 3, meaning you can keep your mobile phone number if you decide to change from one mobile service provider to another.
ECTEL explains that if you port (or switch) between service providers, you don’t have to go to the trouble of advising all your friends, family and colleagues that your number has changed – it stays the same.
David Lake, country manager for telecommunications provider FLOW in St. Kitts-Nevis told Freedom FM that being able to switch mobile service providers without the hassle of getting a new number only augurs well for subscribers.
“Number portability is a special enhancement for consumer choice in our market. It gives mobile consumers the ability to select whichever provider they wish and keep their existing number. It gives customer the ultimate choice to select the provider of his or her preference, so we see this as a very positive thing for customers in St. Kitts and Nevis and we believe that here at FLOW customers will select the provider with the best offers, with the most reliable network fastest data speed as of today, June 3.”
The telecoms official explained that the change would not affect services such as top-ups for pre-paid plans or billing for post-paid subscribers. Flow customers wishing to port or switch their numbers would however have to go in to the company to request the change.