Mobile Number Portability: Dead on arrival? When in 2013 the Nigerian Communications Commission announced its intention to introduce Mobile Number Portability, telecommunication operators in the country had expected that the move would boost telecoms services. Number portability refers to the change of network by a subscriber while retaining his/her number. It is a way of restoring the customer’s status. However, roughly more than one year after that move, which was widely commended, it has yet to be seen how operators and consumers have fared in reaping the benefits. The challenge is also on the industry regulator (NCC) to show how it had ensured that laid down conditions for MNP have been observed. Therefore, there have been several forums to analyse the trend in number portability and evaluate the effectiveness of the innovation in checking poor services by telecommunication operators in the country. Questions that remain unanswered include the capacity of NCC to enforce its rules and generate relevant statistics on various complaints about the operation of MNP. This is because the regulator had outlined at the onset that subscribers who sought to port their numbers would be required to swap their Subscriber Identity Mobile cards from the old mobile service provider for SIM cards from the new provider. Similarly, since NCC had indicated that the customer must initiate porting with a physical visit to the new operator’s sales outlets, it is left to be seen how much traffic the various operators have so far witnessed. In particular, how many enlightened Nigerian users have been willing to port. The Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, had said in The PUNCH of Monday, June 16, 2004 that MNP had failed and might not work in the country because, “number portability as a network feature cannot improve network quality.” To Adebayo, the project was dead on arrival. He had said, “We have one national network and various operators form parts of the national network; literately speaking, we operate one network. So, a general problem on the national network may cut across all the networks; so porting will not solve such problems.” He had also said that the cost of SIM card and mobile devices today made it easier accessing a new connection than porting. His counterpart at the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, Mr. Lanre Ajayi, said porting was not working because of the multi-SIMming culture in Nigeria that makes it so easy for people to just switch over to another line. Ajayi said, “We already have that culture of two, three or more phones and that makes it so easy for people to just switch over to another line on any of their SIM cards, so why then will they port.” However, Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, said the most important reasons for introducing MNP are: “providing choices for the subscribers in the face of unsatisfactory experience they are having on their current network and secondly, keeping operators on their toes towards improving service delivery, since by not improving its network, an operator stands the chance of losing its subscribers to other networks with better quality of service.” Also, in a recent interview, the Public Affairs Director, NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo, said, “The MNP is not compulsory for subscribers. If a subscriber sees a need for it, he or she may switch from his or her current network to another and if not, he or she remains on its current network. “So, you don’t expect a surge in MNP uptake since it is based on the decision of the subscribers to either port or stay. Yet, I believe we are having impressive uptake, coming mostly from individuals who have seen a need to migrate.” It would be recalled that shortly after the stakeholders termed the MNP project a failure, the commission published statistics that may have provided some insights into the current porting status in the country. According to the official data, more than 87,887 telephone lines have ported from one network to another since the launch of the mobile number portability about 14 months ago, representing a steady adoption of MNP service. The figure, if not falsified, comprises incoming and outgoing porting and on the Global System for Mobile Communication operators like MTN, Airtel, Globacom and Etisalat. Incoming porting results in the gaining of new subscribers by a telecoms network from competitors while outgoing porting shows loss of subscribers on a network to its competitors. According to the NCC data, which provides details of MNP activities on the various GSM networks between May, 2013 and February, 2014, 87,887 phone users have ported in the first 10 months after MNP launch. In porting, the number of outgoing porting usually equals the incoming porting but the distribution of the figure for both outgoing and incoming porting differs depending on the network a subscriber decides to port to. On the incoming porting, the purported latest industry data revealed that 7,164 ported in May; 5,759 in June; 6,870 in July; 14,440 in August while a total of 16,185 subscriber lines ported in September, last year. In October, November and December 2013, the figures for incoming porting stood at 8,112,8,242 and 6,962 respectively. In January and February this year, the incoming porting figures on the four GSM networks were 6,888 and 7,265 respectively. However, the commission stated in the data that outgoing ported lines were 7,013; 5,802; 6,753; 12,039; 13,072; 8,105 for the months of May, June, July, August, September and October respectively while in November and December, the figures stood at 7,830 and 5,850 in that order. By the end of January, 2014, the figure was 6,880 while in February; it was 7,080, according to the NCC data. Though it is not compulsory, the NCC described MNP as very useful for telecoms consumers in a country such as Nigeria, where the networks are not robust yet, even as telecoms operators continue to work with the Interconnect Clearing House, for more flexible ways to make migration from one network to another less time-consuming. Results from a survey showed that not many subscribers seem conscious of the beauty of MNP, but telecoms operators said they continued to create awareness on the huge benefits and mouth-watering incentives for subscribers who migrate to their networks. Speaking at an MNP forum organised by Etisalat recently, Acting Chief Executive Officer of the telecoms company, Mr. Matthew Willsher, said “MNP is now very flexible because migration now takes few hours as against maximum of three days we started with at its launch.” Wilsher had said that the network was attracting high-profile individuals in the country. MTN’s Corporate Services Executive, Mr. Wale Goodluck, said there was a level of flexibility and innovation. “We are building into our services to make it attractive to subscribers,” said Goodluck. According to ALTON President, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, telecoms operators are being put under pressure by the scheme to invest in their network quality and this seems to be one of the good sides of the MNP introduction. It is also instructive to note that the porting scheme is also spurring network investment by the operators. Already, network operators are under intense pressure to improve their networks to keep their subscribers loyal. Since the launch of MNP, all the GSM firms have been investing massively to improve their networks as network providers are eager to lure customers from rival. Meanwhile, the ability to retain subscriber number after porting to a new telecoms service provider has been seen as the most important advantage of MNP. Yet, some other subscribers have said the tying down of subscriber to the new network they have ported to for a period of 90 days and their inability to jump out of such network are hassles to MNP. However, the NCC has stated that, just as it is now much easier for porting subscribers to complete their porting process in few hours against the initial maximum of three days, “the NCC will also at some point review the number of days subscribers stay on the receiving networks.” In addition, ATCON President, Mr. Lanre Ajayi, said, “One thing we must note is that migration to the service is charges-free and as such, a subscriber must know about these conditions before porting from one network to another. No subscriber is forced to adopt the service because it is a value-added service for telephone users.” But a subscriber in Ojodu area of Lagos State, Mrs. Chinyere Njemanze, said operators had continued to mount pressure on subscribers to port to their networks. “Even when you have refused to port, they would offer you a free line and airtime as a means of winning you over,” Njemanze said.
Posted on: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 22:14:50 +0000
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