MNP System Overview
The industry, to comply with the regulations, has established a centralised booking system for porting UK MNP DB. This system manages the issuance of:
- Porting Authority Request Codes (PACs)
- Service Termination Authorisation Codes (STACs)
What’s the difference between PAC and STAC?
In the UK, customers who want to switch mobile providers have two main options, depending on whether they want to keep their number or not:
PAC (Porting Authorisation Code)
Used when the customer wants to keep their current number.
The PAC is then shared with the new provider to initiate the number porting process.
STAC (Service Termination Authorisation Code)
Used when the customer wants to switch providers and get a new number.
Sharing the STAC with the new provider will cancel the old number and service automatically, without porting the number over.