As a letter writer in the ST Forum mentioned today, full number portability in Singapore does not mean you can switch from a post-paid to a pre-paid plan when you switch cellphone operators, and still keep your number.
It was pointed out that, number port exercises elsewhere, like in Hong Kong, allow for this to happen.
It’s interesting where this goes. Though the number of people switching from post-paid to pre-paid may not be as big (most pre-paid customers don’t really care to retain their numbers – they are more interested in call rates), you’d ask why this was not worked into the whole exercise.
Is it a technical problem or more based on what telcos think the market needs?
Expect IDA to come back with a reply, and hopefully, the portability could be extended to people switching from post-paid to pre-paid as well.
For now, one workaround, though a little troublesome, would be to switch from post-paid to pre-paid within the same telco, then later jump onto a new telco by doing a pre-paid to pre-paid port.
UPDATE: my suggested workaround doesn’t work, coz telcos do not even port post-paid to pre-paid lines. thanks for pointing it out, gabriel.
I don’t presume any of the telcos or IDA has responded on this inability to port postpaid to prepaid or vice versa yah?
Hi Gabriel,
Thanks for pointing it out. You’re right, I checked with them and there is currently no porting between post n pre-paid -even within the same operator. Not sure of the reason, but maybe something for another article!
Hi,
But i dun think any of the service provider provide a service to change from postpaid to prepaid. Care to enlightment me?
cheers,
Gabriel