(Yicai Global) Oct. 22 -- China's telecoms operators will roll out number porting nationwide by the end of November in order to meet demands from the State Council, according to the nation's industry ministry.

Offering number porting will give consumers more mobility to switch between carriers and break the monopoly operators obtain when they sign up new customers, creating greater competition, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's spokesman Wen Ku said at a press briefing this morning.

Number porting allows telecoms subscribers to switch operators without having to change their phone number.

The change will likely have the biggest impact on China Mobile, though it should still remain the largest of the country's 'big three' operators, according to a research report published by Huachuang Securities in July. China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, all state-owned, make up the big three. They had a combined 1.6 billion mobile accounts as of the end of August.

Five regions -- Tianjin, Jiangxi, Hainan, Hubei and Yunnan -- already began offering number porting on Sept. 19, and people had opted to use the service 2.9 million times by the end of last month. Another 25 areas have finished setting up the relevant systems and are conducting tests nationwide, Wen added.

China will begin commercializing its fifth-generation mobile networks this year so number porting may be affected by progress in this field, Huachuang's report said.

Editor: James Boynton