Have you ported?

Written by Wole Olaoye

One of the best things to happen to consumers of telecommunication services is the introduction of porting by the National Communications  Commis-sion (NCC).

The dogon turanci of that development is what has now come to be known as Mobile Number Portability. At first, consu-mers were cynical. That is understandable in our environment where pro-mises come by the truckload but delivery perches pre-cariously on a flat-tyred bicycle.

Mobile Number Porta-bility was introduced with a promise to provide consumers with the option of changing their network at any time while retaining their numbers.

Nigeria is one of the few countries in the world where people routinely go about with as many as three or four phones at the same time – each one tied to a different network. It was hoped that porting would solve that problem and also eliminate the associated cost of updating business contacts, marketing, and messaging friends and family.

Nigerian consumers had always nursed the hope that someday something would happen to put them in the driver’s seat; something that would force the operators to give value for money. NCC rose to the challenge with the introduction of the porting regime to enhance service quality on the networks and force operators to lower their tariffs.

That development has unleashed a torrent of creativity on the public via the electronic media. The iconic comedian, Saka, at a time became the beautiful bride of advert campaigns by rival service providers. But in this game, two plus two does not necessarily add up to four. Whereas Saka’s “I Don Port o” advert was an instant hit with the public, it did not lift his principals as expected.

Instead, the network from which he ported actually recorded an upswing. Initial figures released by the Juwah-led NCC shortly after the scheme began showed that MTN, the largest network, lost more subscribers than it gained at that stage. It led the losers’ table with 49%, followed by Globacom with 23%, Airtel with 17%, and Etisalat with 11%.

That initial analysis proved to those of us who had been on the receiving end of the inefficiencies of telecom operators that Nigerians are now wiser and can no longer be taken for a ride by big firms who depend on their high budget advertisements to sway consumers. The best advertisement any company can produce is efficient service and competitive pricing.

I was pleasantly surprised the other day when I received a call from my service provider to enquire if anything was the matter as the firm’s analysis of my account showed that my patronage of the network had reduced considerably. I answered truthfully that I was tired of their repeated swindle and that I was, in fact, on the verge of porting to another network. The young man at the other end of the line listened patiently to my litany of woes, especially regarding outrageous charges while roaming. He pleaded for understanding on behalf of his employers. I sang the porting tune to him. I was enjoying myself. For once, an ordinary consumer was in the driver’s seat.

In an era when there is so little worthy of celebration, I am relishing the introduction of the Mobile Number Portability in Nigeria. I think more and more of us should give the system a try. You don’t know what you are missing if you don’t look beyond your immediate fence.

A friend recently told me that he has ported back and forth in his attempt to get better service. He ported from one network to another but soon became disillusioned. He toyed with the idea of porting back to his original network but when he thought about all he had been through in the pre-porting days, he opted instead to port to a third network and he has been happy ever since. He is a post-paid user and he finds the charges of his new network quite fair and their service relatively efficient.

But while consumers are being eased out of their misery, it seems that service providers are stuck between a rock and a hard place in their attempt to meet our expectations.

I am told that one of the major problems with the various networks is the problem of multiple taxations by the various tiers of government. Local and state governments, especially, impose outrageous charges on service providers. Everyone wants a piece of the action. Since the telecom companies are not public charities, they reduce the number of their masts in reaction to the various outlandish charges. The result is that an area that ought to be served by five masts is served by two; signal quality is the first casualty.

There is an urgent need to harmonise charges imposed on telecom installations nationwide if we are not to lose the advantage conferred on the consumer by the mobile number portability regime.

On the political scene, I think porting is becoming a national imperative. If one lives in a state controlled by Party A whose government turns out to be another name for disaster, one would be right to port to Party B which promises to make things better. If Party B also disappoints, one could either try Party C or port back to Party A.

Now, that is interesting. Some people are porting from PDP to nPDP. The other day, one PDP governor received new members who were allegedly porting from APC to his party and he appealed to others still on the other side to join what he called the winning party.

If you don’t like a party whose appointee is buying two cars with over N200 million, you can port to another one that is building roads and schools. It is no longer prophetic to say that we are going to witness a lot of political porting in the days ahead.