Bosnia’s smallest mobile network operator by subscribers, HT Mostar, is facing legal action from the local telecoms regulator, the Communications Regulatory Agency (CRA), over its implementation of mobile number portability (MNP). According to Telecompaper, the CRA, having examined the state of implementation by all three of the country’s cellcos, found that HT Mostar had not yet made the service fully available to its customers; it is understood that ported subscribers are able to make voice calls, but cannot use SMS and MMS services. As a result, the watchdog has confirmed that it will initiate legal action against the mobile network operator, but it has not been indicated what sort of penalty it might seek to impose.
As noted in TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, the road to MNP’s introduction in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been anything but smooth. Beset by a number of delays, mostly related to operators failing to complete technical preparations, August 2011 saw the CRA announce that it was fining both BH Telecom and HT Mostar for delays to the introduction of MNP, after it had set a date of 30 June 2011 for all cellcos to be ready to offer the service. The two offenders were subsequently given until the end of 2011 to complete any necessary work with a view to launching MNP from 1 January 2012, but further delays followed, and with HT Mostar still reported to be working towards completing upgrades needed to offer number portability at mid-January 2012, the CRA confirmed the following month that it was fining the cellco BAM95,000 (USD61,000). Once more a new deadline was issued – 30 June 2012 – but this too has now been missed.