On
Monday, April 22, 2013, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) made paid
its promise to bring to the Nigerian telecommunications consumers; the scheme
tagged Mobile Number Portability (MNP), with its beauty being that no matter
which network you decided to port to, you still have your mobile numbers
intact.
From
the time the MNP was initially proclaimed in the Nigerian telecoms market in
2006, it could be said that it took NCC almost seven years to get this finally
off the table, but there are reasons for the delays, which included that mobile
operators in the country were not ready for the scheme.
At
first, it was the fear that some of the operators would have subscriber cut,
later it was on infrastructure, yet finally it arrived following NCC’s
directive last year to say that Mobile Number Portability must take its root
before the end of the year, still yet, the operators came up with one excuse or
another till this first quarter of 2013.
Though
the introduction of this scheme is commendable as Nigeria telecom space does
not need to wait until every ‘t’ is crossed and ‘I’ dotted, bearing in mind
that technological evolution does not wait for any given country or people to
be ready before its introduction or adoption.
Therefore,
following the introduction of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) scheme it’s
important to note that there are processes to undergo before your numbers could
be ported to another mobile network.
According
to the Executive Vice Chairman of Nigerian Communications Commission, Dr.
Eugene Juwah, any one desiring to port his current mobile number must first of
all visit any of the potential recipients mobile operator to get the general
idea of the exercise followed by sending ‘PORT’ to ‘3232’ and other
interactions will follow from the Interconnect Clearing House, the only
clearing house for MNP in the country; until the telecom consumer receives a
Short Messaging Service (SMS) alert that he or she has been ported
successfully.
Another
point of note before you can port that your mobile number is the fact that it
takes about 48 hours to complete. Although, there were some teething problems
from the porting process, few days after commencement, whereby those who reportedly
ported successfully and even got alert to that effect where unable to make
calls and receive SMS. It’s hoped that these challenges would soon be over.
In
furtherance of the enlightenment needed on MNP, the National Association of Telecommunications
Subscribers (NATCOMS) through its national president, Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo
distributed the Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQs) on MNP developed by NCC.
Be that as it may, analysts in the
industry while lauding the exercise commencement, raised some issues that
cannot be ignored, which includes the fact that most Nigerians now have more
than two Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards because of poor quality
of service among the mobile network operators. Has this been addressed properly?
Also, they maintained that most
Nigerians have in fact ‘ported’ themselves manually with such innovation of
having SIM cards across the networks for the sake of searching for better quality
of service. And based on these, what are the anticipated mobile numbers of
portable subscribers?
Despite the fact that the
introduction has kick started another round of competition hype, industry
watchers are still skeptical about the surge in mobile number porting in the
coming months and years.
According to them, this may have
paved the way for NCC to license only one Porting Operator in the name of
Interconnect Clearing House and obvious lull or apathy by several other
clearing houses already existing to buy full time into the ‘Porting Operator’
bid when it was thrown open.
As we thinker on Mobile Number
Portability and its attendant advantages and disadvantages in this environment,
it’s very important for anyone agitating to port from one network to another to
really answer the posers raised here. Otherwise, porting from one mobile network
to another in search of better quality of service could be a nightmare for the
next 90 days before you can re-port to any other network, above all, the risk
of data lost, should not be taken lightly as most Nigerians still have their
primary data stored on SIM and once you port, be sure to lose such data, which
may include but not limited to phone numbers of your contacts.
Porting may be free, but according
to NCC, change in SIM card may not be free as operators are free to charge discreetly
based on their business modules. So, think deeply whether you really need to
port and its consequences as we await the extension of the porting scheme to the
Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks.
For now, port wisely in spite of the campaigns
and incentives. ... Making SENSE of digital revolution!
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