MWC Barcelona: protecting portability data and digitalizing regulatory processes

MWC 2026 was an excellent spot to celebrate the 25th birthday of PXS! With our growing global footprint and expanding customer base, we welcomed more partners at our booth. It was a shame to miss familiar and new faces due to geopolitical developments, but we still had valuable and forward-looking conversations.

Here’s what we discussed!

Service switching continues to drive customer freedom globally

We met with regulatory authorities looking to introduce number portability or service switching to open up their market, sharing best practices and practical guidelines for a smooth implementation. Number portability and access switching have proven to drive competition, resulting in better services at lower prices for customers.

With regulators in markets where number portability is already active, we discussed how to improve their switching processes, enhance the subscriber experience, and stimulate market competition.

Protect and monetize number portability data

The availability of accurate number portability data is essential to route SMS and call traffic correctly. Its value, however, has made it a target for grey-market distribution.

We reached clear consensus with regulators and operators: trading number portability data without operator agreement is illegitimate, and causes personal data breaches in the process. Our Number Lookup Gateway gives third-parties access to number portability data both 100% accurate and legitimate. The associated commercial model also allows operators to recover number portability costs.

Digitalize Regulatory Processes

Processes such as number plan management, spectrum management, and licensing are a vital part of the regulator’s operation. Since these processes are critical for operators and end users, they must be executed in a secure, reliable and accurate way. We spoke with regulatory authorities to eliminate unsecure paper- or Excel-based processes, implementing PXS’s central and digitalized resource management. Our Number Management System (NMS) empowers them to access all these operations in one place.

Effective regulations through a secure and central Clearinghouse

In many countries, regulations are in place for the registration of SIM cards, IMEI numbers, or other forms of identification. It is clear that effective enforcement of such regulations require a neutral, single source of information. We discussed how our SIM and IMEI register can be the central Clearinghouse for both regulators and operators to ensure compliance.

A growing number of countries also struggle with illegal import and the abuse of lost or stolen devices. Our Device Register helps regulators combat fraud by blocking these phones from accessing mobile networks.

A big thank you to everyone who visited our booth and joined our two Networking Events. It’s always a pleasure to talk beyond business conversations. We hope to see you again soon.

Next up: MWC Kigali!