The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) says they are now studying portability and its suitability for Jamaica's relatively small mobile market, but has already signalled it favours the policy.

OUR boss Ahmad Zia Mian went so far to say there is no real competition in the market without portability.

"We are pleased that the OUR has recognised the need for there to be discussions on this matter. This is what the industry needs to take it to the next stage of competition and it will increase the benefits for consumers," said Claro's Carrier Services Director Robert Shaw.

"There are certain market im-perfections since 2001, and mobile portability is one of the ways to deal with it. We believe customers should be able to switch networks and keep their current number."

LIME too appears to be on board with exploring the idea, and Digicel has not signaled where it is leaning, the company has said any moves by the OUR should be with full consultation with providers.

Shaw said that portability will allow customers to switch networks at no additional cost or penalties, and would lead to widespread reductions in call charges, as mobile service providers will have to compete, based on their rates.

Portability, however, is considered to work best in very large mobile markets of more than nine million subscribers. Jamaica's populace is less than one-third that.

Within this decade, Jamaica has seen explosive growth in phone subscriptions, sparked by Digicel's 2001 entry and its subsequent growth to two million clients.

LIME Jamaica is said to have some 700,000 subscribers, while Claro's base seems to be within the 350,000 to 400,000, based on its most recent claim of new client growth by more than 92,000 since January.

OUR believes that it has to at least, explore portability ahead of a new application to the North American Numbering Plan (NP) for a batch of phone codes, as proof that it was efficient in the deployment of the last batch of eight million numbers.

The regulator says only a million phone numbers remain in inven-tory, and that it would need to apply for more within three to five years.

Portability is not that widespread a phenomenon in this region.

Researchers Signals Telecom said this week that its most recent study of seven large markets - Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela - suggests that some 22 million subscribers would have 'ported' by 2014.

competition tool

But the mobile subscriber pop-ulation for the Claro group's regional operation alone is about 159 million across the hemisphere.

"Much has already been learnt worldwide about implementing number portability, which has led to a broad consensus about the best characteristics for the system," says Signals Director of Market Research, Carlos Blanco, who authored the study, in a company-issued release.

"However, the total number of mobile porting will be moderate because NP emerges in Latin America as a competition tool in itself, so that its potential will be limited unless it is combined with supplementary policies such as: