(ECNS) - Mobile phone users in China will find it easy to shift from one operator to another without changing their numbers nationwide by the end of November, Wen Ku, spokesperson of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said on Tuesday.
Wen said smooth progress has been made in implementing the program led by the State Council amid efforts to boost competition. Now, there are more service centers and streamlined processes for mobile users to freely switch networks.
China’s telecom operators first launched the program on Sept. 19 in Tianjin Municipality, as well as Jiangxi, Hainan, Hubei and Yunnan provinces. By the end of September, more than 2.9 million people had switched from one mobile provider to another while retaining the same number.
The ministry had required the three major telecom operators -- China Unicom, China Mobile and China Telecom -- as well as China Tower, China's telecoms tower infrastructure services provider, to work out a schedule to accelerate the process since March this year, said Wen.
A nationwide trial and debugging to expand the program is currently under way before it is made available across the country before the end of next month, it was confirmed.
