Following its announcement in August this year of its intent to enhance the Number Portability regime in Singapore by increasing choice and flexibility in mobile and fixed line services to benefit consumers, IDA has issued a call for organisations to bid for the "Centralised Database Administrator" role as part of the country's move towards true number portability from the fourth quarter of 2007.

Number Portability refers to the option of allowing consumers to switch between telecom service providers easily without having to obtain a new number and updating all their contacts with their new number.

Singapore takes another significant step towards realising True Number Portability

Currently, consumers who switch providers are essentially provided with a call forwarding service, whereby calls to their old numbers are routed to their new ones. Unfortunately, outgoing calls and messages sent will still reflect the new number on the receiving handset. A True Number Portability regime will eliminate this as well as reduce or eliminate barriers that deter consumers from switching providers. Such a move will also keep the Singapore telecom market keenly competitive and relevant to future developments.

Since the announcement in August, a working committee comprising the IDA, fixed-line operators and mobile phone operators have been working to address the specific implementation requirements and to ensure the roll-out of True Number Portability by the 2007 deadline.

Organisations are invited to bid for the "Centralised Database Administrator" role

Number Portability provides the option of allowing consumers to switch between telecom service providers easily

A Centralised Database is a repository that will store the ported phone numbers of consumers and operators' network information, facilitating the consumers to switch between providers.

To support this, the Centralised Database Administrator will be required to develop a centralised database system that will allow fixed line and mobile services providers to provide number portability services to end-users in Singapore. The appointed Centralised Database Administrator will also operate the centralised database system for seven years from the launch of True Number Portability.

IDA's Deputy Chief Executive/Director-General (Telecoms) Leong Keng Thai sees the Request for Proposal (RFP) for an operator-neutral Centralised Database Administrator as another significant step towards realising True Number Portability in Singapore. "With the True Number Portability solution in place, we can expect to see keener competition than ever and the emergence of more compelling services and packages from the operators," he said.

The submission deadline for the RFP will be on 6 December 2006. All submissions must reach IDA not later than 1700 hrs.