Migrating numbers to Real Move proves truely tough

 Given that TrueMove’s concession expires late next year, the group wants to quickly migrate 17 million TrueMove customers to Real Move, the provider of the TrueMove H brand 3G service. Both TrueMove and Real Move are True subsidiaries.

TrueMove also wants to migrate its 400,000 3G-850 MHz subscribers to Real Move as soon as possible in order to discontinue the existing 3G service under a CAT Telecom concession. It will then ask CAT to switch the company’s 850MHz spectrum band for use as a back-up to the 3G-850 MHz service of both CAT and Real Move.
While TrueMove wants to migrate as many as customers as possible to Real Move via the MNP channel, it has received very little support from other telecom operators. The operators say technical limitations impede their ability to expand their mobile-phone number porting capacity from the current level of around 2,500 per day per operator.
Neither CAT, from which Real Move has leased 3G bandwidth to provide its service, nor TrueMove can expand porting capacity alone; all telecom operators have to do so together.
The MNP service enables mobile-phone subscribers to port their existing numbers to desired networks, allowing them to retain their numbers on the networks they switch to. True Corp’s managing director for corporate solutions, Songtham Pianpattanawit, said CAT and TrueMove are ready to boost their number porting capacity. TrueMove is focusing on migrating premium corporate customers to Real Move.
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) recently asked all telecom operators to jointly expand their porting capacity to 40,000 numbers per day per operator. The firms were also asked to expand their nationwide coverage to points where customers can apply for the MNP service.
Songtham said all 250 of TrueMove’s outlets nationwide could serve customers’ requests for the MNP service.
Real Move, which has around 800,000 subscribers, targets 4 million customers this year.
CAT also requested an additional 16 million mobile-phone numbers from the NBTC, most of which are expected to be used by Real Move to woo new users. But the watchdog is doubtful it can grant the request, as this is the second time this year that CAT has requested new |numbers.
According to the NBTC’s phone-number allocation rules, licence-holders can request new phone numbers once a year. The NBTC has already allocated an additional 3.5 million phone numbers to CAT this year out of its total request for 5.5 million additional numbers.
NBTC commissioner Settapong Malisuwan said the agency’s number-allocation committee would consider whether it could grant CAT’s request of 16 million new phone numbers.
True’s share price closed at Bt3.22 on Friday, down 1.23 per cent from Thursday.