On Monday the 22nd of April, 2013, the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) launched the take off the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) scheme. The much awaited scheme at last came to be three years after the initial target set in 2009.
Top government functionaries and official of the NCC witnessed the launch. Among them were Mr Peter Igho, Chairman of the NCC Board, and Dr. Eugene Juwah, Executive Vice Chairman alongside other commissioners of the NCC, telecom stakeholders and officials of the various GSM companies in Nigeria.
The policy is in furtherance to the NCC’s objectives of protecting consumer interest through the development, monitoring and enforcement of compliance with regulations by telecom service providers in order to ensure better quality services, fair pricing and competition, and in line with the provisions of section 128 of the Nigerian Communication Act (NCA) 2003 which vests the NCC with the exclusive right to regulate numbers and number portability in Nigeria.
Following the approval of the MNP framework, the Commission began plans to develop the regulatory, legal and technical structure for the implementation of MNP in Nigeria as well as the process of selecting a suitable vendor to run the Number Portability Clearing House with the publication of a “Request for Quotation (RFQ)” document for the provision of services with regards to the “Administration of Number Portability Clearing House” in Nigeria.
The framework spelt out the business rules to manage the processes for porting mobile number(s) (MSISDN) between mobile service providers and subscribers, licensed by the NCC to provide mobile telecommunication services in the country.
The policy is a revolutionary step in the development of telecom services in Nigeria. In a nutshell, it enables phone subscribers in a multi-network environment to change from one network to the other without changing their telephone numbers.
In adopting the MNP, Nigeria has joined the league with countries like the United States, the Netherlands, Singapore, Kenya and Ghana as a number porting nation. With it, the NCC has consolidated on its drive to make Nigeria’s telecom sector a global competitor through quality assurance. Nigeria has thus become the 64th country to implement mobile number porting after South Africa pioneered other African nations in 2006, followed by Kenya and Ghana in April and July 2011 respectively.
So far, the most widely supported programme embarked upon by both the NCC and GSM service providers in recent times, the scheme is meant to deepen competition among telecom service providers. It challenges them to improved and affordable services – failure to which they risk losing their customers. Indeed it challenges GSM companies to sharpen their survival instincts.
For the subscribers, MNP has at last conferred on them the status reflected in the popular expression: “the customer is king”. They shall now encounter less and less of the shabby treatment and malpractices they have suffered in the hands of GSM companies because the scope of their choice of service provider has been expanded. It confers the full power of franchise on them.
The policy is being implemented in phases beginning with GSM mobile networks. Thus, the networks involved in the present phase of implementation are Airtel, Etisalat, Glo Mobile and MTN. However, NCC has assured Nigerians that it will shift its attention to CDMA operators afterwards, to enable CDMA subscribers port their numbers too.
Contrary to expectations however, GSM service providers have latched on to the MNP scheme just to broaden the scope of their promos and advertisements rather than improve services as earlier envisaged. From observations thus far, little has changed in terms network coverage and the volume of dropped calls and intermittent service seizures, and other quality of service concerns.
At the launch, Executive Vice-Chairman of NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, confirmed that the MNP platform would spur further competition among telephone operators and ultimately raise the quality of services offered. Senior executives of Airtel, MTN, Etisalat and GloMobile at the launch not only declared their readiness to roll, but assured Nigerians that the scheme would help competition in the telephone system.
Director of Public Affairs at NCC, Tony Ojobo said MNP would lead to the introduction of value added services by the operators to attract more subscribers to their various networks. He added that it would compel telecom operators to be more accountable to subscribers and treat them as kings, which they actually are.
He also said it would enhance billing integrity, since operators would not want to lose customers who may be willing to change to another network if they feel short-changed by one network’s billing system.
While the NCC keeps vigil over service operators to ensure they provide Nigerians with qualitative telecoms services, it must continue to keep an eye on tendencies which for instance led to the recent directives to MTN to upwardly review prices to ensure competitive balance in the sector.
The commission and its principal officers deserve kudos for their dynamism and regulatory vigilance which has changed the sector from a revenue guzzling bureaucracy to one of the nation’s greatest contributors to GDP and economic growth – holding about $25billion worth of investments.
It is worth mentioning that the SIM card registration exercise which preceded the MNP and is still ongoing was a wise decision as subscribers’ identities will remain fixed regardless of which operator they migrate to.
Viewed from a broader perspective, the NCC has gone beyond merely being an industry umpire, to being an ombudsman through compelling telecom operators to fulfill their primary responsibility of offering good services in a socially responsible and ethical manner.
The expectations raised by the MNP scheme are not being fulfilled and Nigerians again are looking to the NCC to rein in GSM operators who have merely capitalized on the scheme to indulge in a wild medley of promos without improving their services.
Adimorah is an Abuja-based corporate executive.
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