PROPOSED APPLICATION OF NUMBER PORTABILITY IN ENHANCING QoS AND QoE IN KENYA Peter Nyongesa & Mwende Njiraini Communications Commission of Kenya ITU-T Workshop on Delivering Good Quality Telecommunication Service in a Safe Environment in Africa (Nairobi, Kenya, 26 July – 27 July 2010 )

Numbers: A Critical Resource Identifiers: End-users Network elements Geographical locations Services Traffic routing 2

Mobile Subscriptions and Penetration 3

Impact of Mobile Growth Increased demand for numbering resources Demand on investment: network capacity Potential negative impact on QoS/QoE 4

Efficient Number Utilization Growth of mobile subscriptions Numbering resource demand Number block allocation Regulatory interventions for efficient number allocation: Charging for numbers Number portability 5

Number Portability Drivers Consumer demand: Location/service neutrality Limit disruption/expense of number change Regulatory tool: Efficient utilization of numbering resources Promote competition in a multi-operator environment Enhance consumer freedom of choice 6

Number Portability and QoS PARAMETERSTARGETS Completed Calls>90% Call Set Up Time<13.5 seconds Call Drop Rate<2% Call Block Rate<10% Speech Quality MOS for 95% of samples > 2.7 Others Customer Service Response time % of complaints resolved with a pre-determined time period Service coverage 7

Number Portability and QoS Customer satisfaction: QoS expectations Perceived QoS Operation flexibility = Number portability Number portability = Customers flexibility Customer flexibility = Customer satisfaction Source: Madhani (2006) Review of Quality of Service (QoS) measures in Mobile Telephony sector: Extension from Operation Efficiency to Operation Flexibility. 8

Number Portability and QoS Number portability rewards competitive operators with: Lower Tariff Higher QoS/QoE Wider service coverage Wider-range of innovative services Consumer-friendly service 9

Number Portability: Application in Kenya 1 st Public consultation; 2004 Responses: 1 fixed operator - no favourable porting operator 2 Mobile operators – unnecessary customer churn Consumer concerns – lack of tariff transparency of on-net and off-net 10

Number Portability: Application in Kenya Decision to defer until: The market had at least 3 mobile operators Differential between on-net and off-net tariffs narrowed Market place changes: 4 mobile operators Unified Licensing Framework New interconnection framework 11

Number Portability: Application in Kenya 2 nd Consultation; 2008 on Service Provider Number portability (SPNP) International tender: 28 th October 2009 M/S Porting Access Kenya Ltd Application Service Provider Licence: June 2010 Number portability services based on Centralized Reference Database Per-port charge <EURO 1.62 (Ksh VAT Inclusive) 12

Number Portability: Application in Kenya 13 CRDBCRDB CRDBCRDB RECIPIENT OPERATORRECIPIENT OPERATOR RECIPIENT OPERATORRECIPIENT OPERATOR DONOR OPERATORDONOR OPERATOR DONOR OPERATORDONOR OPERATOR Authorization request Authorization Answer Instruction request ALL OPERATORS Instruction response Broadcast

Challenges Network externalities: Increase in number of users increase value of network to other users: Dominance? Fisheries problem: Each user decreases the value of the network participation for all the others- lower Qos Consumer lock-in Strategies: Value added services Large pre-paid subscriber base: Low income and low usage Cheap SIM 14

Opportunities Consumer choice Competition Better QoS 15

Thank you! 16