To promote effective competition in the mobile market segment, Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK), in April 2011, introduced the Mobile Number Portability (MNP), a service that allows mobile subscribers the flexibility and convenience of migrating to a mobile network of their choice yet still maintain their original mobile number.

Since its inception, the uptake of this service has continued to show mixed signals in the market segment. Latest statistics from CCK showing that the total number of MNP imports dropped to 678 over the period between April and June 2012 as compared to the 6,646 imports recorded over the period between January and March 2012. A drop CCK attributes reduced tariff differentials among operators, long porting duration experienced by the porting customers, club effect in mobile telephony which is enhanced by the subscription to mobile money transfer service coupled with customer preference and choice.

678 is the lowest ever recorded MNP import.

Based on the fact that as of 30 June 2012, the number of mobile subscriptions stood at 29.7 million, as posted in CCK Fourth Quarter Report, and the total number of Mobile Number Portability imports, as of 30 june 2012, stood at 47,884, means that only 0.16 percent of the mobile subscribers in the country embraced mobile number portability, 99.8 percent feel comfortable in the network they are in.

Long porting duration experienced by the porting customers, reduced tariff differentials and club effect in mobile telephony which is enhanced by the subscription to mobile money service coupled with customer preference and choice are but some of the explanations to the low uptake of Mobile Number Portability.

Below is the trend in MNP uptake since its inception in April 2011 to date:

[caption id="attachment_22553" align="alignnone" width="895"] Table sourced from CCK[/caption]