Neotel's geographic number portability (GNP) announcement has been met by a vague response from Telkom.
Earlier this week, Neotel announced it had completed the test phase of porting large block numbers to its own network from Telkom's.
At the time, Rajeev Sinha, Neotel's products senior manager, said: "While they are currently still executing the test cases to check routing, billing, and so on, it is a massive step toward giving SA corporate customers the freedom to choose."
In response to a query from ITWeb, regarding number portability, Telkom says it welcomes the competition. "Telkom has consistently welcomed the liberalisation of the telecommunications landscape, which has brought about increased competition."
Telkom also confirmed the fixed-line operators did work closely on the project and will "continue to work closely with other industry stakeholders to the benefit of the ICT sector in the SA market at large".
Testing of number portability started between Telkom and Neotel in March and, after this week's announcement, Neotel is convinced fixed-line porting will be more effective and have a better response than the mobile operators experienced.
According to Sinha, enterprise clients have shown a keen interest in porting Telkom numbers to Neotel's services. "The primary interest is that customers are looking at a better price point, which we can offer. They are also hoping to keep the current business contact details they have."
He says porting in a fixed-line environment can be better controlled than in the mobile space, adding that fixed-line number changes could have a heftier impact on business operations.
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