Mobile Number Portability Begins in Nigeria Today.

 Nigerians will today begin to enjoy the benefits of porting their mobile phone numbers from one network to another, while still retaining their original numbers.

This will be made possible by today's launch of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) across the networks of GSM operators.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the industry regulator, fixed the launch of MNP in Lagos today.

Although the launch of the service is not extended to Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), operators like Visafone and Capcom, which recently bought over Starcomms, Multi-Links and MTS Wireless, NCC has assured Nigerians that it will shift its attention to CDMA operators immediately after today's launch, to enable CDMA subscribers port their numbers.

In technical parlance, Mobile Number Portability is a process that allows subscribers to migrate from one network to another, in search of quality service, while still retaining their original phone numbers, irrespective of the network the subscriber chooses to migrate to.

 

Omobola Johnson, Communications Minister

NCC in its released guidelines for MNP, made porting free of charge for subscribers, but insisted that subscribers could port their numbers once every 90 days.

Optimistic that the portability launch would benefit both subscribers and the operators, Director of Public Affairs at NCC, Tony Ojobo told THISDAY that MNP would lead to quality service and increased healthy competition among operators, in addition to the introduction of value added services by the operators to attract more subscribers to their various networks.

He said it would compel telecoms operators to be more accountable to subscribers and treat them as king, which they actually are.
He added that it would enhance billing integrity, since operators would not want to lose customers who may be willing to shift to another network if they feel short-changed by the network’s billing system.

In spite of its benefits for subscribers as listed by Ojobo, the implication for subscribers is that no subscriber is allowed to port a number more than once in three months (90 days).