OUR changes guidelines to porting phone numbers

The Office of  Utilities Regulation (OUR) has made changes to the guidelines for the porting of  telephone numbers.

The utilities regulator says this follows a review of  the guidelines and the need to improve the efficiency of  the porting process including additional consumer safeguards against unauthorised or inappropriate porting transactions. 

A news release from the OUR says the porting request form can now be paper-based or in electronic format and the locations at which the porting process may be initiated have been expanded to include service providers' retail stores and authorised dealer stores.

The Number Portability Administrator can now advance a porting transaction if  the service provider fails to send the authorization response within the specified timeline.

Number portability was introduced in Jamaica in 2015. 

It enables local mobile or landline telephone users to retain their telephone numbers when transferring to another service provider.