Fixed number portability
FNP enables customers to transfer their existing telephone number from one fixed access provider to another. It has been introduced by many regulators throughout the world to stimulate competition, as it was felt that not being able to keep ones number was a barrier to changing fixed access providers.
In the majority of cases, it will involve the transfer of a fixed geographic number within the same local area. Transfers of geographic numbers outside the local area are not possible due to the way in which numbers have been allocated.
The situation is different for non-geographic numbers such as freephone, local rate, national rate and premium numbers, as they are not location-dependent. |