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NCC addresses portability failure

By on December 26, 2013

The Nigerian Communications Commission has given reasons why only about 50,000 subscribers out of 10 million have been able to successfully change from one network to the other after the introduction of the Mobile Number Portability.

During a town hall meeting with consumers in Oyo town, the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholders Management, NCC, Mr. Okechukwu Itanyi, said the purpose of the meeting was to bring together consumers, service providers and regulators together in order to address consumer-related issues.

Itanyi, who was represented at the forum by the Deputy Director, Consumer Affairs, NCC, Mr. Femi Atoyebi, said many of the consumers willing to take advantage of the portability programme lacked the knowledge of the processes involved, while several others were flouting the instructions.

He said it was important for the NCC to address the problems of MNP because of its usefulness in reducing tariffs and bringing healthy competition to the industry.

Itanyi said, “One of the barriers to competition in the industry is the reluctance of consumers to change their networks, even when they are dissatisfied with the services of their network providers because of the fear of losing their numbers.

“The MNP gives consumers the choice and freedom to the best network and I wish to state that one of the prerequisites for a number to be ported is to have the number registered in the SIM registration database, without which the operators will not be able to identify a porting subscriber or confirm the rightful owner.”

He said the low success recorded so far in changing operators by subscribers was also due to frequent changes in networks and lack of patience.

According to him many subscribers, who are successful in porting, soon change to other networks within 90 days of the first application.

Itanyi said, “A subscriber can only change to another network after 90 days of the completion of the first application. It takes 24 hours to complete a process, but some apply for a change again even when they have not completed the first switch.

“Porting can only be done by visiting the consumer care office, retail shop or authorised dealer of the chosen new network and not by telephone calls or other electronic means.”

 

 

[Punch]