French operator Free Mobile will have 1 million customers by the end of January, according to Orange, Les Echos writes. In its first week, the operator reportedly signed up an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 customers a day. The volume of number portability requests was so high that Free Mobile voluntarily limited the number of requests made to EGP, the entity responsible for mobile number portability, to avoid total chaos, EGP COO Nicolas Houery said. Free Mobile is sending 35,000 to 40,000 portability requests a day to its counterparts. In consultation with telecom regulator Arcep, EGP had forecast a 40 percent increase in portability requests, he added. The body is studying how to resolve the problem. Adding servers will not be enough. It may open a second platform to handle only requests involving Free Mobile and the three MNOs, Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom.
