Thee major telecom network providers - Viettel, VinaPhone and MobiFone - started testing mobile number portability (MNP) on Thursday, which allows subscribers to keep existing mobile number when switching networks.

MNP will be officially available in Viet Nam by the end of this year, according to a project of the Ministry of Information and Communications, approved in 2013.

According to the Authority of Telecommunications, there will be no changes to the mobile numbers or while dialing when subscribers switch their networks with MNP.

The authority said MNP would give subscribers the right to choose networks, boosting competitiveness of the telecommunications market.

A mobile switching centre was established to facilitate MNP.

The authority said a detailed implementation plan for MNP would be available in early October.

Tao Duc Thang, deputy director of Viettel, was quoted by VnExpress online newspaper as saying the network provider was ready to run technical tests of MNP.

Representatives from MobiFone and VNPT, which operates VinaPhone, said the companies were making preparations for MNP in line with the roadmap set under the ministry’s project.

Only subscribers with numbers activated for least 90 days could switch to other networks, according to the ministry.

In Viet Nam, there were some 126.5 million mobile phone subscribers until the end of June.

MNS was first launched in 1997 in Singapore and is currently present in more than 70 countries and territories worldwide. — VNS