NCC Releases Paper on Number Portability

Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) has released the initial consultation paper on the implementation of the long awaited number portability which will allow subscribers to change their service providers without changing their telephone number.
The Commission said that it was exercising the provision of section 128 of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003 which vested exclusive powers to regulate number and number portability in Nigeria.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek learnt that the objectives of number portability include the removal of barriers to free choice of mobile network by a subscriber, ensuring further increase in the level of open competition among network operators as well as acting as stimulus for service providers to improve on quality of service while making it easier for the last mobile entrant to gain market share.
It is not clear exactly when Nigerians will begin to enjoy number portability but NCC is determined to see the materialization of the initiative.
It will be recalled that NCC had in 2007 mooted the idea of mobile number portability to remedy quality of service problems.
It has remained in the coolers until now.
Number portability is shunned by service providers who fear that their subscribers will churn due to their poor quality of service or customer base.
The nature, type and routing of number portability to be implemented in Nigeria include: location portability, service portability and service provider portability.
Location portability is the ability of a subscriber to retain his number when changing from a physical location to another within the same calling area. This type of portability may not be required in the existing mobile services which are offered nationwide.
Service portability on the other hand is the ability of a subscriber to retain his number as he changes from one service provider to another for example from mobile to fixed services or from PSTN to ISDN while service provider portability is the ability of a subscriber to retain number when changing from one service provider to another.
Service portability can be introduced in three ways: geographic, mobile and non-geographic.