NCC Gets N61Bn Budget, Accuses Operators of Sabotaging MNP

Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has accused mobile telecoms services providers of deliberately sabotaging the mobile number portability (MNP) which enables a mobile phone user to keep his mobile phone number when changing from one mobile service provider to another.

This is coming as the House of Representatives yesterday in Abuja passed the 2013 budget of N61 billion for the Commission.

But at this year’s Telecoms Executives and Regulator’s Forum organized by Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Eugene Juwah, executive vice chairman/chief executive officer, NCC, lamented that that operators have been frustrating subscribers willing to port out of their networks.

MNP was introduced about seven months ago to give subscribers more freedom to dump inefficient service providers.

Juwah  said this practice is particularly common among high value customers who for one reason or the other, express interest to port, warning that it will not hesitate to sanction erring operators.

According to the NCC boss,  MNP was NCC’s answer to subscribers prayers who c;lamoured for the introduction of the scheme in the country so that they could have ample opportunity to dump inefficient operators.

“We should not be in a hurry to conclude that MNP has not succeeded. When compared with other countries where it has been introduced, it is too early for us to say it will not succeed.

“We have been watching because some operators don’t want to play to the rules. We have evidence that high value customers are not allowed to go. People should play by the rules because if they do not, it will attract sanction,” Juwah warned.

Earlier Maria Svesson, drector, Customer Care at Globacom,  said since the scheme was introduced, less than 50000 subscribers have ported in and out of the networks.

She identified constraints such as the window required for customers to be on the network and the issue of post-paid customers who might want to port out of the network without paying the debt owed the donor network.

She said MNP has not succeeded as it should have because subscribers are already used to multi-SIMMing (use of multiple subscriber identity modules (SIMs).

Meanwhile, The House of Representatives yesterday in Abuja passed the 2013 budget of N61 billion for the Nigerian Communications Commission.

The breakdown of the budget revealed that N14 billion was approved for recurrent expenditure, while 19 billion was form capital and special projects.

The house approved the transfer of seven billion naira to the Federal Government, N10 billion was allocated for transfer to Universal Service Fund and five billion naira was expected to be transferred from reserves.