Pakistan bans MNP on security grounds

The Pakistan government has decided to ban mobile number portability in the country, citing alleged threats to national security, although quite how it could be was not made clear.

A meeting between the government and the regulator was reported to have agreed that criminals are using unregistered SIM cards – despite a ban on selling SIM cards without verifying the identity of the purchaser.

As a result of the meeting, the regulator is to clamp down on the sale of unregistered SIMs – and also agreed to block future MNP requests.

MNP was originally introduced into the country in April 2007. Telcordia provides the clearing house software for the service.

The recently delayed decision to implement a censorship system on text messages was again confirmed as going ahead once the networks are ready.