Schedule A
Functional System Specification ("FSS") for Number Portability
This functional specification applies to:
| (1) | the portability of geographic, non-geographic numbers and mobile numbers; and |
| (2) | all licensees that have been allocated portable numbers. |
| (1) | Number porting process is recipient-led and shall be initiated when a subscriber submits a porting request to the recipient operator as detailed in the ordering system specification. |
| (2) | The porting times to support number portability shall include Monday to Friday 09H00 to 17H00 and 09H00 to 13H00 on Saturday excluding Sundays and public holidays. |
| (3) | When the recipient operator receives a request for number portability, it shall advise: |
| (a) | the subscriber to retrieve any message or any other information stored in the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card that could be lost when the account is closed; and |
| (b) | the subscriber to retrieve any message or any other information stored in the Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) that could be lost when the account is closed. |
| (4) | Recipient operator must advise the subscriber that any credit, unused allowances, bundled services, data credits and any third-party services used by the subscriber on the donor operator’s network will no longer be available once the number is ported. |
| 3. | INFORMATION REQUIRED FOR PORTING |
| (1) | Requests to port a number or number blocks from a pre-paid account shall include: |
| (a) | the valid assigned number or number block; |
| (2) | Where the account holder is a legal entity the request to port a number or number blocks from a pre-paid account shall include: |
| (a) | the valid assigned number or number block; |
| (b) | approval from the nominated accounting officer; |
| (c) | contact number of the nominated accounting officer; and |
| (d) | identity Document/card or Passport of the nominated accounting officer. |
| (3) | Requests to port a numbers or number blocks from a post-paid subscriber shall include: |
| (a) | the valid assigned number or number block; and |
| (b) | account statement from the donor operator. |
| (4) | Where the account holder is a legal entity the request to port a number or number block from a post-paid account shall include: |
| (a) | the valid assigned number or number block; |
| (b) | account statement from the donor operator; |
| (c) | approval from the nominated accounting officer; |
| (d) | contact number of the nominated accounting officer; and |
| (e) | identity Document/card or Passport of the nominated accounting officer. |
| 4. | PORT VALIDATION PROCESS |
| (1) | A donor operator shall validate a mobile number porting request by means of a onetime- pin (OTP). The OTP shall be valid for four (4) hours, after which if no response |
| (2) | The OTP as contemplated in sub regulation 1 of the schedule, shall be structured as follows: "(Donor operator name) has received a request from (Recipient operator name) to port this number: (subscriber number). If this information is correct, please send the following OTP: xxxxx. This OTP is valid for 4 hours, after which failure to respond to this message, shall result with the port request being rejected.” |
| (3) | A subscriber shall not be charged for the OTP validation as contemplated in sub regulation 1 of the schedule. |
| (4) | A donor operator may seek independent confirmation from the subscriber in the case of: |
| (a) | accounts of more than one number; |
| (b) | accounts held by legal entities other than natural persons; and |
| (c) | any other category agreed by the Authority in writing. |
| (5) | The confirmation sought by the donor operator as listed in sub-regulation (4) do not constitute grounds to reject or decline a port request. |
| (6) | The port validation processes, including the confirmations as contemplated in sub regulation (5) of the schedule, shall not exceed a period of seven (7) hours from the time the donor operator receives the port request from the recipient operator. |
5. REASONS FOR PORT REJECTION
| (1) | A donor operator may reject a request to port only on the following grounds: |
| (a) | The information required to initiate a port request as contemplated in regulation 3 of the schedule, is not provided or is incorrect; |
| (b) | the number or number block is not valid on the donor operator's network; |
| (c) | the number is excluded from number portability in Regulation 3, |
| (d) | the account number is invalid (post-pay only); |
| (e) | the classification of the account does not match, example a request is made under the pre-pay procedure for a post-pay account; |
| (f) | the account was in arrears and/or suspended at the time of the port request; |
| (g) | the number is already subject to a porting process; |
| (h) | the number has already been ported within one (1) calendar month; |
| (i) | the geographic number or number block is being ported to an area not within the geographic boundary (ONN) associated with the number/number block. |
| (j) | The donor operator, in response to its port validation request, receives a response from the subscriber that the port request in invalid. |
| (2) | The Authority may in addition to the reasons in Regulation 5(1) publish in a Government Gazette additional reasons in consultation with licensees and interested stakeholders. |
| (3) | At the time when a donor operator rejects a request, it shall report the reason for the rejection to the recipient operator within nine (9) hours of receiving the request. |
| (4) | A donor operator shall not reject a request to port a number or number block for a post pay account as a result of penalties incurred for an early termination of a contract, nor may the donor operator delay the port until the monies are collected. |
| (5) | A donor operator must not reject a request to port a mobile number on a pre-pay or post-pay account because the subscriber's terminal is locked to the operator's network. |
| (1) | In the event that a port has been deemed an invalid port and the subscriber did not timeously respond to the OTP, as contemplated in regulation 4(1) and (2) of the schedule, the port is to be reversed immediately. |
| 7. | ACTIVATION FOR PORTED NUMBERS |
| (1) | The procedure for number portability shall result in the ported number or number block being activated on the network of a recipient operator before the number or number block is de-activated on the network of the donor operator. |
| (2) | With the exception of the port validation and confirmation processes, the donor operator must respond to requests from a recipient operator, and effect any actions requested, as soon as possible and/or within a period of one (1) hour. |
| (3) | Where network operators synchronise changes to their networks, the changes shall be made at a time of low network traffic to be agreed between the operators and specified in the ordering system specification and shall be completed within one (1) hour. |
| 8. | QUALITY SERVICES FOR PORTING |
| (1) | The call set-up time for a call to a ported number must not be increased when compared to the set-up time for a call, on the same network, to a non-ported number. |
| (2) | The one-way transmission time for a call to a ported number must not be increased when compared to the one-way transmission time for a call, on the same network to a non-ported number. |
| 9. | SUBSCRIBER’S SERVICE PROFILE |
A donor operator is not required to disclose a subscriber's service profile to the recipient operator.
