Mobile number portability SMS challenges

“While relatively few people have ported, it is critical that all mobile services used by these consumers keep on working. Unfortunately this is not always the case,” says Dr Streicher.

MNP came into effect on 10 November 2006 in South Africa with the aim of forcing the mobile network operators to be more competitive. MNP gives consumers the choice of switching networks without losing their cellphone numbers.

Small percentage

According to Clive Fagan, GM of the Number Portability Company, almost a year later, more than 110 000 numbers have been ported. This is a small percentage of the total 30 million mobile users in South Africa but significant in terms of managing business communications to ported numbers.

“The porting of these cellphone numbers has proved a technical headache. WASPs have to route SMS messages to the correct network operator. This used to be easy but it is not as straightforward anymore,” comments Dr Streicher.

Before MNP, all numbers prefixed with 082 were routed to Vodacom, 083 to MTN and 084 to Cell C. With MNP, a 082 number could now belong to any network. To route messages correctly, WASPs now have to determine first whether a number is ported by querying the ported number database. This has to be done for each number to which a SMS is sent.

Most WASPs allegedly still only route SMS messages based on the old network prefixes. The result is that when message recipients with ported numbers reply to these messages, the replies are dropped.

All businesses that use SMS for communication purposes use messaging applications provided by WASPs. A modelling agency, for example, could notify a model of a potential casting via SMS. If the model replies that she or he is available but the reply gets dropped due to porting, the model could lose out on income. Dentists notifying patients of appointments could also be negatively impacted if a patient replies that they cannot make a specific appointment and the reply SMS is dropped.

“Mission critical”

According to Dr Streicher, “businesses often rely on SMS replies for mission critical communications. If some SMS replies are dropped, then the business and their supplier or client could suffer.”

When selecting a suitable WASP as a SMS provider, it is important to select a WASP that routes messages to ported numbers via the correct network. If not, replies from ported numbers will be dropped, and the value of sending SMS messages to consumers will be lost to a business.