​​​​The Communications, Space & Technology Commission has sought to provide Mobily Number Portability (MNP) service in the Kingdom in accordance with its responsibilities set forth in the Telecom Act and its Bylaws. Number portability is a facility whereby mobile customers can keep their numbers when changing from one network service provider to another. The Commission aims to encourage competition among service providers by facilitating subscriber number portability from one service provider to another, thus giving the subscriber greater flexibility to choose among the service providers. This contributes to improving the quality of service, raising operational efficiency and lowering prices. The Commission issued a policy document and guidelines for mobile number portability and established the Number Portability Clearinghouse (NPC) to electronically implement, accelerate and follow up the number portability process between service providers and to serve as a single database for all ported numbers in the Kingdom. The Commission also issued a decision requiring mobile service providers to apply the mobile number portability service in their networks and to link it to the NPC database. This service was launched on 11/06/1427H corresponding to 7/8/2006G. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the leading countries in the world, and the first in the Middle East, Africa and the Islamic world, to provide this service to subscribers. ​