The UK Mobile Number Portability Operator Steering Group (‘MNP OSG’)

The OSG’s mission is to act as a forum for Members to meet and agree the arrangements necessary to ensure that, at a practical, technological and procedural level, Members are able to provide MNP that at least meets their obligations as set out under Ofcom’s General Condition 18.

The operation of the OSG is subject to Ofcom’s powers of enforcement under the Act and to general competition law including that set out in the Competition Act 1998 and the EC Treaty.

The OSG Terms of Reference:

To facilitate the discussion of matters affecting the MNP service offered by mobile service providers.
To administer the meetings of the OSG Administrative Committee and its Working Groups and ensure that the OSG Administrative Committee acts as a point of escalation on matters that are unable to be resolved by the Working Groups.
manage the suppliers that provide goods or services directly related to the Number Portability System (NPS).
Ensure the availability of the NPS (managed by Syniverse Technologies) to all service providers in order, at a minimum, to facilitate compliance with their MNP obligations and to ensure that the necessary agreements are in place such that the Porting System is kept in good working order.

OSG Executive Members

OSG’s Participating Members

As of February 2021, the official Participating Members are: Emergency Services Network (Home Office); Gamma; Lycamobile; Pareteum; Sky Mobile; Smartnumbers (Resilient); Stour Marine; Tango Networks; Truphone; and Virgin Media. In addition, from time-to-time non-participating members will also be invited to contribute to discussions regarding Switching, especially when Ofcom introduces new or updated regulations.

The MNP OSG Administration Team comprises the OSG Chair and the OSG Production Manager. Their role is to:

Administer OSG meetings and ensure that the OSG Administrative Committee acts as a point of escalation on matters that cannot be resolved by the Members.
Manage suppliers that provide goods or services related to the System.
Discuss and arrange funding for any suppliers.

OSG Chair – Justin Le Patourel

Justin has spent much of his career addressing consumer issues within the telecoms industry, having worked at Ofcom for thirteen years from 2003 to 2016. During this time, he held positions including Head of Market Intelligence, and Consumer Policy and Protection Principal, a role focused on empowering and protecting telecoms consumers.

Justin now chairs the OSG. He also advises operators and regulators around the world on implementing and improving processes to help consumers switch easily from one telecoms provider to another, and on broader telecom policy issues, including bringing ultra-fast fibre broadband to rural areas.

OSG Production Manager – Nicholas Bennette.

Nicholas has worked in over 24 years in the delivery and operation of Mobile and Fixed Number Portability, IT infrastructure due diligence; telecoms regulation; revenue recovery and assurance, and IT audits. In addition to his UK work, this specialty has taken him to South & Central America, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Caribbean, Middle East, the Far East, Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation.

Nicholas chairs the OSG’s technical working groups. His main focus is to enable the contributing members to have a structured forum where the day-to-day operation of MNP can be discussed and, if necessary, to help resolve technical or procedural issues that may occur between members. Recently, Nicholas provided administrative support to the members during the implementation of the recent regulated Auto-switch (text-to-switch) process.