Mobile Number Portability To Commence April 25, NCC Says

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said that the earlier announced Mobile Number Portability (MNP) would commence April 25, –about a month from now — when roll out is expected already. MNP will allow mobile phone users to keep their number, and still receive calls on it, after migration to another network. The NCC also spoke on the proposed slashing of interconnection rates between networks — from N4.90k to N4.40k — following slashed SMS rates between networks in February. NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, Tony Ojobo said, “This development is a direct response to the dynamics in the market and we are certain that it will make service providers more responsive to the consumers. Though, we see increase in traffic because it is a win situation to both consumer and the service providers, we took everything into account before coming up with this reduction in the interconnect rate.” “We believe that mobile number portability will also make operators accountable to consumers as this will make quality of service improve far beyond what it used to be. We also believe that the ICR reduction and MNP regime are going to be an interesting time for all to watch.”