Mobile number portability in the UAE and you

Mobile number portability (MNP) is one of those telecommunications offerings that seem to be available everywhere in the world but the Middle East. Having your phone number tied to you instead of a SIM card is a concept that the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority has been talking about introducing but not yet delivering to the UAE.

Once the MNP switch is turned on, one would expect both Etisalat and du would see a healthy amount of customers leaving each respective operator for the other. Mobile phone rates would likely decrease while the operator's would introduce promotions at a feverish pace to reduce subscriber churn. Personally, it would also really make my job a lot more fun writing about all of these developments.

The last we've heard about MNP coming to the UAE was this October 2009 article in our sister newspaper,

Al Itthad

(

) where the TRA said it is likely to become operational sometime ... around now (or the early part of 2010).

I recently had a chance to speak to some high-level executives from Etisalat and du to get an update on where launching the MNP service is at, which you can find after the jump.

Essa al Haddad

, the group chief marketing officer for Etisalat:

Osman Sultan

, the chief executive of du:

(Photo credits: A man uses his mobile phone outside of Madinat Zayed Shopping centre in Abu Dhabi, Essa al Haddad during an interview at his office, Osman Sultan at a press conference at The Address Hotel in Dubai.

Ryan Carter, Jaime Puebla, Andrew Henderson / The National

)