Mobile number portability (MNP) Consultant to the National Communications Authority (NCA), Bob Palitz has said Ghana is on track for the scheduled launch of MNP on July first. “We are getting very good cooperation among all the operators and the central service provider, Porting Access Ghana - In fact, inter-operator testing has already begun, so I think we are on track for our scheduled launch,” he said. Mr. Palitz gave the assurance in answer to a question on a new Facebook group called “MNP Ghana”, which he created to educate the public on MNP ahead of the July launch. The group is an open access platform for anybody to join with comments, questions and suggestions from consumer perspective about MNP. Mr. Palitz has created a Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) page where several consumer-based questions about MNP have been answered in very simple language. Some telecom operators have expressed doubts about the July MNP launch because they admit in-house research indicate majority of their subscribers have no clue what MNP is all about. No operator have called on the NCA and the media to do more education, but none of the operators has begun education on MNP for their subscribers yet even though they are duty bound to do so. But Mr. Palitz said he does not perceive any operator to be "anti-MNP", even though they may all have their individual opinions as to the benefits or disadvantages of MNP to their organizations. “When MNP launches in a market, some operators win and some operators lose customers, but the numbers don't always work out the way people would predict,” he said. He noted that there was a possibility that total subscriber numbers in the market might drop a little, if there were some people who had more than one number, but only kept the number on their first network so their friends could find them. This assertion is particularly true about Ghana where multi-SIMing or ownership of more than one SIM card from different networks is common. “Perhaps some percentage of those who own more than one number might drop their first account and move the number to their second network of choice,” he said. Meanwhile telecom operators are divided over what the impact of MNP would be. Some say porting would not go beyond two per cent whiles others say two per cent would be significant in terms of value because most of those would be high-spending customers. Story by Samuel Nii Narku Dowuona/Adom News/Ghana