Bharti Airtel Lanka CEO Ashish Chandra confirmed that a new firm, Lanka Portability, has been established to oversee the implementation of fixed and mobile number portability (FNP / MNP) in Sri Lanka.
All of the country’s domestic operators hold a stake in Lanka Portability, which is currently in the recruiting stage. Chandra noted that Sri Lanka does not currently have the local expertise required for the “big technical investment” of implementing number portability.
Local outlets quoted him as saying: “It is a few million dollars which have to be put in and implementation itself takes about two to three quarters. I do not see it happening in the next two to three quarters, but work is happening in this particular direction and hopefully next year we should be able to see it.”
In March 2021, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) announced that FNP and MNP would both be introduced in October that year. This target has evidently not been met despite receiving the required clearances in October 2021, although the TRCSL Director General Oshada Senanayake maintains that number portability will drive improvements in both voice and broadband quality by stoking competition in the market.
