Mobile Number Portability (MNP) scheme takes off in Nigeria

Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) and operators of Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) services will today flag-off Mobile Number Portability (MNP) scheme, a telecom democratic environment.

MNP makes it possible for a subscriber to migrate from one network – may be due to poor services – to another which he/she feels can offer better services, without losing his/her original phone number.

More than 110 million mobile phone users in the country can change from one network to another and still retain their numbers.

Mrs. Omobola Johnson, minister of Communications Technology, is expected to be the special guest of honour, while the top echelon of the Nigerian Communications Commission and telecommunications industry operators and stakeholders will also be part of the flag-off.

Johnson said number portability means that subscribers have a choice and hopefully it would increase competition in the industry

.”That doesn’t stop the quality of service issued because we have a nationwide quality of service issue at this moment. We are doing a number other things to work on quality of service issues, making it easier for our network operators to rollout infrastructure without the bottlenecks of multiple taxes and multiple regulation, the cost of Right of Way (RoW), the vandalisation of ICT infrastructures.