Mobile phone number portability in UAE faces new delay

Changes to the mobile number portability plans by the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) are expected to delay the introduction of the service in the country, The National has reported. The service was supposed to be implemented in 2009, but due to the time needed to resolve several technical issues between the regulator and the telecoms operators, Etisalat and du, the launch was pushed back to the first quarter of this year. Last month, Mohammed al Ghanim, the director general of the TRA, acknowledged that the roll-out of mobile number portability had encountered technical problems, but said that '2010 is not going to pass without number portability'.