Keeping a mobile number while changing operator is a regulated service in Kuwait. The rules sit in the mobile number portability bylaw issued by the Communication and Information Technology Regulatory Authority in October 2025, and they fix where the request goes, how long it may take, what it may cost and when it can be turned down.
Start at the new operator
The request is made at the company you are moving to, not the one you are moving from. That company runs the process, and it is the only one entitled to charge you for it.
The fifty-day rule
A line cannot be ported until fifty days have passed since it was activated. Beyond that, the service covers prepaid lines, postpaid lines and data lines alike.
Timing
You may name the day you want the move to happen, within thirty days of filing. Once a request is accepted, the completed transfer must take no more than twelve hours.
What it costs
The receiving operator may charge up to five Kuwaiti dinars for each successful port. The operator you are leaving may charge nothing at all for it.
Four grounds for refusal
The bylaw lists them: the line is under fifty days old; the request carries a material error; the number and identity details do not match what is on record; or the number is not active on the donor network.
In practice the last two are what trip people up. Take your civil ID to the branch, and before you go, make sure the line is live and registered in your own name.
Photograph: a Kuwait One card for the Communication and Information Technology Regulatory Authority, over a blurred telecommunications mast. Photo by Wainuio, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Source: Communication and Information Technology Regulatory Authority, mobile number portability regulatory bylaw, October 2025.
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