The TCF facilitates Local and Mobile Number Portability (LMNP) between networks, which gives New Zealand consumers and businesses the ability to keep their existing local or mobile phone number if they change telecommunications providers.
The users of LMNP recently gathered for a conference to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the system and look to what the future holds. Highlights of the conference included a briefing on updates and improvements to the system, including new automated features which will allow the system to operate smoothly and future-proof, and offer increased scalability.
Number porting was introduced on 1 April, 2007, at a cost of $100 million to the industry, including changes to networks and billing systems. At the time it was introduced there were 18 carriers and 10 service providers; in 2018 there are now 57 service providers and 43 carriers, so systems and processes have become more complex, which the new system has been designed to manage.
Since the inception of LMNP, 2.5 million fixed and mobile numbers have been ported, enabling freedom of choice and facilitating competition in the market.
