Mobile Number Portability (MNP) is currently not available in the Kenyan mobile telephony market. Number porting is the process of transferring a phone number from one provider to another. For example, in Kenya porting as a service could allow one to move as a subscriber from Safaricom to Airtel Kenya without changing their unique 10-digit phone number.
According to feedback from a telephony market insider, “The services were suspended in October 2021 after the partner offering the service didn’t reach some agreement with yet another partner who was crucial in enabling them to offer the service.”
This disagreement between key industry players led to all telephony operators in Kenya stopping mobile number portability services. Today, to move to a new network in Kenya, one has to get a completely new mobile number.
Number porting as a service was launched in Kenya back in March 2011 and rolled out on April 1st of the same year. At launch, a company named Porting Access was the one appointed to facilitate the porting process. Porting Access acted as a custodian of the porting services database. Subscribers looking to move to another mobile network but keep their number were required to pay a fee of KES 200.
In Kenya today, there has been a rising inquiry for mobile number portability services. This comes after a backlash on Safaricom due to unconfirmed allegations related to an internet shutdown.
Due this, many have elected to move to Kenya’s second largest mobile network, Airtel. While Airtel confirm, they can’t offer the service, they promise to assign subscribers a number as close to the one they have as possible. This is done at any Airtel shop in Kenya.