Number portability: A fable told to us long ago | Editorial

By Kieron Murdoch | Opinion Contributor

What has become of the government’s stated intention of making number portability a reality in Antigua and Barbuda? We find ourselves asking that question as we reflect on the rather lengthy period in which the subject has been discussed but not achieved. It has been at least nine years since announcements were first made about number portability. Nine years.

At the end of this editorial, we have included a list of articles on the subject of number portability from Antigua.news, ABS, ANR, Observer, The Pointe Xpress, and LOOP News, going back to 2016. Yes, 2016. It’s 2025. In most of the updates, a promised implementation timeframe is often around the corner and no matter how many such timeframes are missed, the following update simply repeats that implementation is a stone’s throw away.

Most often, the updates come from the Telecommunications Minister, Melford Nicholas. In an ABS interview in October 2016, the Minister sounded cautious about putting a timeframe on implementation, but promised that “we will not be left behind” as the region adopts the feature, which allows you to keep your number and switch carriers. By 2018, he was sounding more confident suggesting that it would happen sooner rather than later.

But in 2019, St. Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and St. Lucia, which is within the jurisdiction of the Eastern Caribbean Telecommunications Authority, achieved mobile number portability. Antigua and Barbuda missed the ferry. Three years ago in February 2022, the Pointe Xpress ran a front page headline saying “Number portability confirmed for 2022”. That target was missed.

In July 2023, the same paper reported: “The much anticipated mobile phone number portability will likely become a reality in Antigua and Barbuda in just under nine months. That is the word from Utilities Minister Melford Nicholas”. In August 2024, ABS reported that number portability was “imminent” according to the Minister. In December however, Nicholas acknowledged further delays. In January, it was reported from the Cabinet that number portability was “in the testing phase” and was soon to be widely available.

While this issue may not be high on the policy agenda as it is not a bread and butter policy issue, it is worrying to witness how easily the goal post for a promised policy change can shift after an announcement is made to the public. This is not to dismiss the very real challenges that have been encountered during the process or to discount the genuine efforts of our elected and technical officials. But surely, there is something wrong when elected officials can promise the same thing over and over and simply not deliver.

What is the challenge with a more realistic timeframe? Why is it always around the corner but actually years away? Why not just tell us that it is actually years away due to complex reasons?

And if the answer is that implementation has always genuinely appeared to our officials to actually be just months away, then it is worrying that they have not been able to adequately predict the complexities and challenges involved in making the shift for which they are aiming.

Naturally, you would prefer a workman who says to you, “This project is going to take me seven weeks,” as opposed to the someone who tells you, “I can get this done by Saturday,” then proceeds to take seven weeks anyway. And if seven weeks later, the defense of the workman who told you that it was going to happen by Saturday is that unforeseen hurdles kept getting in the way, you are within your rights to wonder whether he was simply not worth his salt.

Like virtually everyone else, we support the push to introduce number portability in Antigua and Barbuda. We believe that it would create more competition and would seriously benefit consumers. Carriers would no longer be able to rely on clients shying away from switching networks due to the inconvenience of having to abandon a previous cell number. So, we look forward to its implementation shortly, in the long run, whenever it happens, hopefully, at some point, perhaps, in quick order, maybe, in the fullness of time, but no promises, definitely.

About the writer: 

Kieron Murdoch is an opinion contributor at antigua.news. He worked as a journalist and later as a radio presenter in Antigua and Barbuda for eight years, covering politics and governance especially. If you have an opinion on the issues raised in this editorial and you would like to submit a response by email to be considered for publication, please email [email protected].