Here’s an interesting figure: every month, 150,000 Australians port their mobile number from one provider to another. That number is likely to rise drastically this month with the closure of Kogan Mobile, but industry bodies say extra staff are being put on to ensure major delays don’t happen.
Mobile phone picture from Shutterstock
An emergency meeting of the Communications Alliance Mobile Number Portability Administration Group (MAG) yesterday agreed to ensure all carriers have extra staff available to handle porting. Daily meetings of the group will be scheduled until the volume returns to normal.
While Kogan customers have little choice about moving, it’s likely that some ALDI Mobile customers will be unnerved and jump ship. The closure of Savvytel will also push more customers into porting.
According to Communications Alliance, 90 per cent of porting requests are completed within three hours. That’s good news, though that still means in a slow month 15,000 people will be without service for a longer period. Let’s hope that number doesn’t rise in August.
For a more detailed look at changing providers, check out Lifehacker’s detailed switching guide.
Republished from Lifehacker