Etisalat, Airtel Emerge Biggest Gainers of Number Porting Scheme

The Nigerian affiliate of Etisalat, the Gulf’s biggest telecoms operator, and India’s Bharti Airtel, have again emerged the biggest beneficiaries of the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) scheme introduced by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) two years ago to address the issue of poor Quality of Service (QoS) by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), according to data from NCC.

The introduction of the scheme allows holders of Nigeria’s over 183 million active mobile lines to retain their phone numbers when changing from one operator to another due to poor services without losing their numbers.

Industry observers are of the view that the scheme, which has deepened competition in Nigeria’s telecoms industry as mobile operators jostle to woo new subscribers while retaining existing ones, showed on the Commission’s website that Etisalat enjoyed the exercise most, as it led with an additional 9,875 customers on its network in April.

This is contained in the ‘Incoming and Outgoing Porting Activities of Mobile Network Operators’ report published by the NCC. Airtel came second on the gainers’ list, as it added 2,933 subscribers to its customer strength.

Also on the gainers’ list, 1,717 subscribers moved into the Globacom network, while MTN Nigeria gained 994 customers as of April.

The NCC says telecoms network operators carried out a total of 30,876 mobile number porting activities in the month of April. The report showed that there was an increase of 764 in the MNP activities in the month of April, as against the 30,112 activities in March. Out of the 30,876 porting activities
in April, about 15,519 were incoming porting activities, while 15,357 were outgoing activities.

The report revealed that in the outgoing table, MTN Nigeria lost a total of 8,161 subscribers to other networks through the MNP activities in April.

According to the report, South Africa’s MTN Nigeria is the worst hit during the exercise, followed by Airtel Nigeria, which lost 3,381 customers in the month under review. The report said Globacom lost a total of 2,038 subscribers, while 1,777 customers of Etisalat Nigeria ported to other networks at the same period.

Industry observers however are of the view that the multi-SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card culture appears to have neutralised the effectiveness of the Portability (MNP) scheme.

Tony Ojobo, director of public affairs at NCC, in a report last year, said the MNP was not compulsory for subscribers. “If a subscriber sees a need for it, he or she may switch from his or her current network to another and if not, he or she remains on its current network.

“So, you don’t expect a surge in MNP uptake since it is based on the decision of the subscribers to either port or stay. Yet, I believe we are having impressive uptake, coming mostly from individuals who have seen a need to migrate,” said Ojobo.

The MNP exercise was flagged off on April 22, 2013, by the NCC, with the aim of deepening competition in the industry. To achieve a port, the subscriber is expected to visit the customer care office, retail shop or outlet of their chosen new service provider and meet with the authorised sales person to make a request to port a number.

Currently, porting can only be done by physically going to a customer care office, a retail shop or an authorised dealer outlet of the service provider a customer wants to port to. Telcos have consistently said porting cannot be done over the telephone, online or other electronic means.