Don't Miss


Home   >   Tech & Telecoms   >   Telecoms   >   Number portability: NCC will force operators to rural areas

Number portability: NCC will force operators to rural areas

By on August 10, 2013

The Nigerian Communications Commission has said no telecommunication service provider will be excused from providing Mobile Number Portability services to subscribers in the rural areas of the country.

This is because the regulatory body said it had discovered that the structures that would enhance porting services were lacking in most of the rural areas.

The operators are supposed to equip their customer care centres across the country with trained personnel and facilities necessary to make the porting process seamless.

The Special Assistant on Technical Matters to the Executive Vice-Chairman, NCC, Mr. Edoyemi Ogoh, said the MNP scheme was national and must be implemented as such by the operators.

“For the rural areas, the NCC is assuring Nigerians that the operators will be made to go to these areas by compulsion as the MNP is for the whole country,” he said.

Ogoh admitted that there were chances that the operators might want to avoid the rural areas because of the belief that such areas would generate lower returns compared to the urban centres.

Two days ago, the telecoms network operators under the aegis of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria and the NCC disagreed over the resolution of the regulatory body to sanction errant operators under the MNP scheme.

The ATCON, through its President, Mr. Lanre Ajayi, had said imposing sanctions on the operators would only take away from them the money that could have been invested in building and expanding their networks.

He argued that such sanctions might worsen the quality of telecoms services in the country as funds that could have been ploughed back into the operators’ network would be paid to the regulator as fines.

 

 

[Punch]