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Multilinks, Visafone, Starcomms’ subscribers face porting obstacles

By BusinessNews Staff on December 23, 2013

The inability of subscribers on the Code Division Multiple Access networks to change their operators and retain the numbers, as is the case with the Global System for Mobile Communication, is a source of worry to its subscribers.

Many CDMA subscribers are desperately willing to port to the GSM networks because most of the (CDMA) operators are currently not doing well. They are merely struggling.

But the subscribers are stuck with the networks. They can only abandon the CDMA lines not port.

The Nigerian Communications Commission had unveiled the MNP scheme on April 22, 2013 for the four mobile operators in the country – Airtel, Etisalat, Globacom and MTN.

The commission indicated then that it had yet to bring any CDMA operator on board.

Currently, the country has three active operators in the CDMA echelon – Visafone, Multilinks and Starcomms. For now, activities in the stratum are being dominated by Visafone.

The low patronage of the CDMA services has affected their operations and is currently posing challenges to a few subscribers that have remained with the networks, in terms of quality of service.

Our correspondent gathered from some of the subscribers that the need to port to other networks while retaining their existing numbers had become imperative in view of the fact that they were already known with the CDMA numbers.

For instance, Mrs. Ola Adekanmi and Mr. Paul Isokan, who are subscribers to different CDMA networks, said they were already losing businesses from clients had only their CDMA numbers. They hinted of plans to port to any other network.

But they feared that the worst times could be ahead as some of the CDMA operators were already showing signs of going under.

Recently, there were also indications the operators in the CDMA segment of the telecoms sector might not play any significant role in the planned national broadband framework.

On the broadband programme, the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, engaged telecoms service providers and Internet Services Providers without the inclusion of the CDMA representatives.

Juwah had said under the Open Access Model for next generation optic fibre broadband network, the CDMA operators would have the opportunity to participate in the broadband and bid for licences as well as improve their networks.

A CDMA subscriber, Ms. Serah Akan told our correspondent that if the NCC decided to implement the MNP on the CDMA networks, she would within 24 hours port into a GSM network of choice.

Currently, the planned review of the conditions governing the MNP scheme has been shifted to an unnamed future date.

Following the clamour by telecoms subscribers for the amendment of the MNP processes, a committee was set up in June to assess the entire framework.

But more than six months after the committee was raised, its members representing all stakeholders have yet to meet.

A member of the committee, who did not want his name published, had told our correspondent that the review was unlikely this year.

The stakeholders’ meeting was initially planned for July this year to get fresh inputs from the regulator, the NCC; telecoms operators, Interconnect Clearinghouse Nigeria

Limited (the firm that handles the entire porting process), the judiciary and subscribers’ associations, among others, on the way forward.

Six months after the review move was initiated, the process appears to be stalled as nothing is currently being said about the plan.

The meeting, it was learnt, was aimed at addressing major areas of concern such as the crave of subscribers for new SIM cards instead of porting to another network whenever the need arises; and the rise in the use of dual/multiple SIM phones by subscribers. These were considered a major setback for the MNP scheme.

Some of the contentious issues have to do with asking a subscriber to stay on a particular network for 90 days before migrating to another network after the initial porting; and the 48-hour porting process period.

People have also complained about poor awareness, especially in the hinterlands; and the need for physical presence before a successful porting.

These concerns, it was learnt, informed the call for a review of the scheme.

Commenting on the issue, the President, Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria, Mr. Lanre Ajayi, said, “The information we got when the scheme started was that at a later date CDMA subscribers will be brought on board.

“As it is, they (CDMA subscribers) cannot force themselves on the MNP scheme. They have to wait until they are engaged in the process by the Interconnect Clearing House and the NCC.”

[Punch]

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