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Tag: NCC

  • NCC deadline

    NCC deadline

    • Streamlining the subscriber base of mobile phone networks for integrity and safety is a necessary step that should proceed with caution

     

    About three years after the take-off of the National Subscriber Identity Module card registration, owners of unregistered telephone lines have been warned to register their lines or be cut off from the telecommunications networks across the country. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which gave the warning, said with effect from June 30, any unregistered telephone subscriber would not be able to make phone calls or send text messages on such lines. The commission’s director of public affairs, Mr. Tony Ojobo, who made this known, said the decision was part of the outcome of a meeting between the telecommunications operators and the regulatory agency.

    When the Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication was launched in the country in August 2001, all that subscribers needed to do was approach a dealer for line and this was activated about 24 hours later. Nobody cared about registration of the lines. However, with the upsurge in crimes, particularly kidnapping and terrorism, the government thought it expedient to have telephone subscribers registered, at least to enable it pin particular numbers to specific persons, to checkmate the criminals who took undue advantage of the haphazard manner that characterised the ownership of the lines then.

    To demonstrate its commitment to the registration exercise, the Federal Government provided N6billion to the NCC to facilitate the implementation of the project, against strident criticisms that the registration should have been the sole responsibility of the telephone operators.

    At least 80 percent success was reportedly recorded at the end of the first phase of the exercise, with about 95,886,714 subscribers registered. The implication is that at most, about 19.16 million mobile telephone subscribers across the country may be disconnected from their respective networks next month, if they have still not registered their lines. Even though the subscriber base has since increased to more than 109,829,223 as of December 31, 2012, the new subscribers are unlikely to be affected by the June 30 deadline because their lines must have been registered before activation.

    Since nothing lasts forever, the June 30 deadline given by the NCC is a fair deal; it is long enough for any genuine telephone subscriber to register his or her line. The need for a deadline for the registration is further exacerbated by the fact that the country has no reliable data base and part of government’s intention is to use the data garnered during the exercise as a form of data base from where basic information could be obtained about quite a significant number of Nigerians.

    Without doubt, we need to know the exact number of telephone subscribers in the country. And this cannot be ascertained unless every line is registered and we can also not get this unless we put a deadline to the registration of old lines that had been in use before the registration started, since new lines are being registered before they are activated. The advantages of knowing these statistics far outweigh any disadvantage of the registration.

    But the NCC and the telephone operators have to be systematic and take extra care so as not to cut off subscribers that have registered their lines. The possibility of this is high in view of the experience of many subscribers who have registered their lines but keep getting text messages to do same. What this implies is that data collated during the registration were not synchronised. Otherwise, it is only those that are yet to register that should receive such messages.

    This is why we urge extreme care in cutting off lines even after the expiration of the deadline. Subscribers who are yet to register should seize the window of opportunity to register their lines before the deadline. However, we must remind the regulator and the telephone providers that registration of telephone lines should not be a ritual that law-abiding subscribers have to perform again and again simply because someone or some organisation failed to do their job.

     

  • NCC sets June 30th deadline for SIM reg

    NCC sets June 30th deadline for SIM reg

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has announced June 30th as deadline for the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card registration exercise.

    Making this disclosure at the weekend was the Director of Public Affairs, NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo, who tweeted the breaking news on his Twitter handle, said the decision to end the registration exercise was taken after a meeting between the Commission and the Service providers.

    According to him, the SIM card registration exercise which began since March 28, 2011 will come to an end on the 30th June, 2013, and all SIM cards that are not registered will be barred.

    “There’s now a window opportunity for those who have not registered their SIM cards to do so, otherwise from the 30th June, they will be barred and can’t use the number anymore to make calls,” he said.

    Ojobo further said that the total number of registered SIMs will be made known after the June 30th cut-off date.

    The NCC, whose initial deadline for the SIM registration was on the 28th September 2011, had since being harmonisation and collation the results of the exercise, a process that has enabled subscribers who hitherto were not able to meet the deadline of the registration, to do so.

    According to the regulator, there are more than 113 million active telephone lines in the country. It is feared that the total number of unregistered SIM cards could still be much; and the 52 days window period is a great opportunity for subscribers to register to SIM cards.

    It would be recalled that NCC began the SIM registration procedures since 2008, in view of complaints by security agencies of the increasing wave of mobile phone crimes in the country.

  • ‘NCC not protecting data users’

    Regulator of the telecoms sector, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has been accused of not doing enough to protect the users of data in the country.

    The Managing Director, Ambion Wireless, Tolulope Braimah, said the main reason Internet experience in the country has been unpleasant is that some Internet service providers buy bandwidth at cheap prices from cable operators for resell.

    According to him, Glo 1 and Main One brought “backhaul”, which they sell to operators at a cheap rate, only for some of the operators to resell it at a higher cost, adding that NCC should intervene to reduce the price.

    But NCC Director, Media, Tony Ojobo, dismissed the allegation as baseless, arguing that anybody that has an issue with any ISP should call the NCC on its hotline.

    He said if a subscriber experiences downtime, he is entitled to compensation, adding that should the ISP fail to do that, the NCC should be informed.

  • Should NCC intervene in market domination?

    Should NCC intervene in market domination?

    A few days ago, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) asked telecom giant MTN to increase its tariff to check its domination of the market. Some argue that NCC was right in stepping into the matter; others believe that it was wrong. Lucas Ajanaku examines the pros and cons of the argument.

     

    The  Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria, Brett Goschen, is media shy. So, when it was his turn to speak on the Potentials and prospects of MNP in Nigeria, at the launch of the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) by the Nigerian Comunications Commission (NCC) at the MUSON Centre, Lagos, many had waited to hear what he would say, especially after his counterparts in other telecoms firms, beginning with Segun Ogunsanya of Airtel have spoken.

    However, to the admiration of the audience, Goschen, on a lighter note, said there were many reasons why MTN’s subscribers are more than that of its competitors.

    Goschen may not be too far from the truth. With the country’s subscriber base above 113 million as at last December, MTN, according to sources, has about 50 million subscribers; its competitors, Globacom, Airtel and Etisalat share the balance.

    In a report, the telco said it increased its subscriber numbers by 3.2 per cent in the first quarter of last year to 195.4 million. This growth was led by Nigeria, where it added a net 3.9 million new customers in those three months, helping offset a net loss of 470,000 customers in South Africa, its home market.

     

    KPMG report

    The industry growth has led to the increased maturity and sophistication of individual networks and also ushered in intense competition among players.

    To ensure fair play in the industry, NCC said it engaged KPMG Professional Services in last June to study the level of competition. Kangid said undertook a similar study for the commission in 2005, where it was revealed that no operator satisfied the criteria necessary for being declared dominant in the mobile and long distance markets, which were considered at the time.

    KPMG found MTN and Globacom to be “dominant” in the telecoms sector. “Based on findings, the Commission has determined that MTN is dominant in the Mobile Voice Market,” the report said. In the wholesale leased lines and transmission capacity market, the Commission noted that Glo and MTN had dominant positions.

    KPMG noted: “The mobile voice market is not effectively competitive and is still highly concentrated with an HHI of 3063. MTN has a 44 per cent market share of subscribers within this market. There is also a wide differential (of about 300 per cent) between on net and off net calls and this is indicative of the likely establishment of a calling club for MTN subscribers.”

    NCC ruled that the dominant operator in the mobile voice market, MTN shall be required to collapse on net and off net retail tariffs: “The differential between the on–net and off net retail tariffs will be immediately collapsed. The tariff for on net and off-net will be the same, and subject to periodic review.”

    The regulator said it would enforce accounting separation on the dominant operator, adding that it may require the dominant operator to submit details on specific aspects of its operations from time to time as the need arises.

     

    Stakeholders’ perspective

    Analysts fear that NCC ‘s decision is an attempt for the regulator to micro-manage the sector. They argue that since the sector has been liberalised, the onus is on the operators to come out with unique products that will draw customers to their network.

    President, Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Lanre Ajayi, said those arguing that the NCC is trying to micro manage the industry have a point. He said it was the duty of NCC to ensure that there is always a level playing field in the industry.

    “There is certainly valid argument that the NCC is trying to micro manage the industry but the regulator has the responsibility to ensure that there is a level playing field among the operators, it has the responsibility to also ensure that the dominant operator does not abuse its strength; in other words, they do not oppress the smaller ones. If you recall the days of NITEL, we had that challenge when it was the dominant operator and used its power to oppress the smaller operators by denying them access to connection to the network. We all complained during that time. So, if we complained about NITEL’s dominance then, it is not appropriate to allow dominant operator to oppress smaller operators but the NCC needs to ascertain whether the dominant operator was indeed oppressing the smaller ones. I don’t know if that has been ascertained or not,” he said, insisting that it is within the powers of the regulator to ensure that a dominant operator does not distort the market.

    ”We should be careful not to encourage NCC to start micro managing the operators. This is something that has to be carefully balanced such that while they are trying to protect the smaller operators against the dominant operator, we don’t end up micro managing the operators. So, we must strike a balance,” he said. The ATCON boss said NCC should not be misconstrued as its effort is to deepen competition, which will benefit the consumers.

    “If there is no competition and you encourage a dominant operator, other operators may die and if they do, there will be no competition again and we will be back to the days of NITEL. This is what this effort is trying to do. There is no basis to be scared about the future of the industry based on this development,” he said.

    President, National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS), Deolu Ogunbanjo, praised the NCC for the step it took. He said in the United States, the regulator also stepped into the matter involving Microsoft. “This will further protect the market and ultimately the subscribers. So, there is no basis to fret over the development,” he said.

    He said volume should drive the business, adding that with the introduction of MNP, end user tariffs will go down while quality service will be offered the subscribers.

     

    MTN, ALTON keep mum

    MTN and Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) decline to comment. While several calls made to ALTON’s Chairman, Gbenga Adebayo, were not picked, he acknowledged a text message, but failed to pick subsequent calls. For MTN, an e-mail sent to its General Manager, Public Affairs, Funmi Omogbenigun, was not acknowledged.

    While the Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP) model was adopted in the study, marketing concentration based on Herfinahl Hirschman Index (HHI), existence of price leadership, exploitative pricing and exclusionary pricing were parameters used under pricing strategies; network coverage was the only parameter used under geographic coverage of the operators.

    “The SCP model postulates that the structure of a market determines to large extent the conduct of the participants in the market, which in turn, influences the performance of the firms within the market with respect to profitability and efficiency. This model, or its close substitutes, has been used in assessing competition within the telecoms industry in a wide range of countries including the United Kingdom, the United States, and Kenya. The reliance on this model is considered relevant especially in the context of forward looking ex ante regulation, since conduct detrimental to competition must be anticipated primarily on the basis of the structural characteristics of the market,” the Executive Vice Chairman/CEO, NCC, had Eugene Juwah, said.

     

    Regulator defends stance

    According to NCC, dominance in itself is not negative because it is an indication of the effectiveness, resourcefulness and strategic decisions of the operator. It, however, noted that the conduct of the operator determines how its dominance would be perceived, particularly if that conduct is likely to lessen competition and distort the market.

    The regulator promised that necessary regulatory tools to correct current and potential anti-competitive practices such as predatory pricing, margin squeezes and cross-subsidisation by any of the operators with dominant position in any of the market segments or sub-segments are to be applied by the Commission.

    NCC said the KPMG study started in the form of interactive meetings with the operators, followed by a stakeholders’ forum to sensitise the industry and provide opportunities for constructive contributions on the state of the telecommunication market. In addition, the network operators provided industry data for the study.

    Upon review, NCC said the market was segmented into voice, data, upstream and downstream services. The voice and data markets have mobile and fixed sub-segments. The sub-segments of the upstream market are spectrum and frequency services, tower services, network services, wholesale broadband/internet services and wholesale leased lines and transmission capacity services while handsets/devices and applications/contents make up the sub-segments of the downstream market.

     

     

     

    Fixed voice loses market

    “The study concluded that the mobile voice market is not effectively competitive. The fixed voice market has consistently lost market share over the past three years and no operator was considered by the study to be dominant. Though the mobile data market segment has grown significantly in the last five years, the study concluded that no operator is dominant. With the current circumstances in the upstream supply segment the study concluded that it is doubtful that the fixed data market will achieve effective competition. The study also concluded that the upstream market is not effectively competitive,” NCC said.

    NCC said consistent with the liberalisation of the Nigerian telecommunications industry in year 2000, it has facilitated market entry through its transparent licensing processes for various communications services. It added that today, Nigeria is the fastest growing telecommunications market in Africa and it is noteworthy that the giant strides in the telecommunications industry over the last decade were the direct effects of enabling regulatory environment created by the Commission.

    It said it acknowledges the resoluteness and commitment of the network operators towards the development of the telecommunications industry and will continue to partner with them as key stakeholders in further advancing the telecommunications market for the benefit of consumers and the entire industry.

    It is yet to be seen what impact this will have on the subscriber base of MTN.

     

     

     

  • NCC directs MTN to raise tariff

    NCC directs MTN to raise tariff

    In a bid to create a level playing field for telecoms  operators, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has directed MTN Nigeria Communication Limited to raise internal mobile tariffs.

    NCC in its recent industry review, phone calls between MTN customers cost three times lower than calls to other networks. The report stressed: “This is indicative of the likely establishment of a calling club for MTN subscribers.”

    MTN, which has about 44 per cent of the market, must cut the difference in price and face further scrutiny to ensure the competitive landscape is even for all operators, the NCC insisted.

    Nigeria, Africa’s fastest growing telecoms market with a population of 167 million people has a subscriber base that is slightly above 113 million at the end of 2012, according to the NCC. MTN Nigeria is the market leader with 47 million lines.

    Globacom had 24 million subscribers, Airtel-23 million customers while Etisalat had 14 million, according to data on the NCC’s website.

    The report also showed that MTN and Globacom were found to “jointly control about 62 per cent of the public terrestrial transmission infrastructure,” raising concerns they may “squeeze the margins of their competitors who are also their customers.”

    “As a result of the determination outlined above, the Commission has resolved that the Dominant Operator in the mobile voice market shall be required to adhere to the following obligations:

    “Accounting Separation: The Commission will immediately enforce and implement Accounting Separation on the dominant operator

    “ Collapse of On net and Off net Retail Tariffs: The differential between the on–net and off net retail tariffs will be immediately collapsed. The tariff for on net and offnet will be the same, and subject to periodic review.

    “ Submission of Required Details: The Commission may require the dominant operator to submit details on specific aspects of its operations from time to time as the need may arise.” The regulator added that the Commission shall make a determination of pricing principle to address the rate charges for on-net and off-net calls for all other operators

    On the dominat operators in the Wholesale Leased Lines and Transmission jointly dominated by MTN and Globacom, NCC said it will impose price cap/price floor for wholesale services and price floor for retail services which shall be subject to periodic review. It also plans to “immediately enforce and implement accounting separation on the joint dominant operator.”

    The regulator added that it may require any of the joint dominant operators to submit details on specific aspects of the operations from time to time as the need arises.

    “The determination shall take effect from 1st May 2013 and remain valid and binding on licensees for the services specified in relevant market segment of this sector until further reviewed by the commission,” the NCC said.

  • NCC begins mobile number portability scheme

    NCC begins mobile number portability scheme

    Regulator of the telecoms sector, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday in Lagos kicked off the implementation of the mobile number portability (MNP) scheme, saying the development will give subscribers freedom to choose which service provider to use.

    Speaking yesterday at the event, the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NCC, Dr Eugen Juwah, said it is in furtherance of the commission’s vision of providing not only access to telecoms services to Nigerians at affordable cost, but also to continue to provide the required stimulus and appropriate environment for the introduction of innovative services that will impact on quality of telecoms service delivery.

    The NCC also said that ongoing national registration of Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card that kicked off in the country on February 28, 2011 will end soon.

    “SIM card registration will come to an end very soon. We are collating data from the operators (and the agents commissioned by the NCC),” the EVC said, adding that data submitted to the commission by the operators and the agents it commissioned to carry out the exercise is being collated by the NCC.

    According to Juwah, MNP has been identified as one such services that could further deepen the competition in the telecoms market, adding that with the growing reliance and dependency on mobile communications for everyday socio-economic interactions.

    “The vision of the commission is not only to provide access to telecom services to Nigerians at affordable cost but to also to continue to provide the required stimulus and appropriate environment for the introduction of innovative services that will impact on quality telecoms service delivery.

    “Our mobile subscriber numbers have become our identity and in most cases, we are required to provide our mobile (telephone) numbers while filling out forms in opening bank accounts, making hotel and airline bookings.

    “With the launch of MNP today, consumers of telecommunications services will no longer need to acquire new numbers in order to move from one network service provider to another. They will simply take along their existing numbers along with them to any network of their choice. The power and freedom of choice will, henceforth, rest with the consumer. If a consumer is dissatisfied with the quality of services being provided by a service provider, s/he can simply port out of that network to any network of his/her choice without losing his/her subscriber number,” Juwah said.

    According to Juwah, with the launch of MNP, there will be no need for customers to engage in the usually painful exercise of trying to commit phone numbers to memory, neither will they need to frequently change complimentary cards, billboards, letter-heads and other corporate documents.

    He added that MNP will revolutionise the way calls are being routed since the National Destination Codes (NDC), that is, the network prefix such as 0802, 0803, 0805, 0809 usually identified with operators will no longer play the role of unique identifier.

    He added that preparatory to the implementation of MNP, NCC adopted the ‘All Call Query (ACQ)’ option for routing calls and SMS in line with international best practice.

    He pointed out that there are rules governing the process of customers porting from one network to another and regulating the implementation of by network providers.

    “These rules are contained in the Mobile Number Portability Business Rules already published and available on the Commission’s website. In addition, the commission has also developed Regulations for Mobile Number Portability. It is anticipated that these documents will provide guidance, promote transparency and healthy competition among service providers,” the NCC chief said.

  • NCC lifts ban on promotions on Airtel, Globacom, Etisalat

    NCC lifts ban on promotions on Airtel, Globacom, Etisalat

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has lifted the ban placed on promotions on Airtel, Globacom and Etisalat networks, Mr Tony Ojobo, the NCC Director of Public Affairs, has said.

    He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Friday that the lifting of the ban was because the three service providers met the regulatory body’s December 2012 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

    Ojobo, however, said that the ban placed on promotions on MTN network was still in force.

    ”The ban on MTN still remains in force until the KPIs are met.

    “We expect that the networks will all continue to provide good Quality of Service (QoS),” he said.

    NAN recalls that the NCC, on Nov. 12, 2012, placed the ban on all promotions by telecom operators as well as lotteries on the GSM networks.

    Ojobo then said that the ban, which took immediate effect, would remain in force until the commission decided otherwise.

    He said the ban was introduced because NCC was inundated with many complaints from consumers and stakeholders against the various promotions offered by the operators.

    Ojobo said that the commission carefully evaluated the complaints  to sustain the integrity of the networks.

    He said that the complaints were also evaluated in the general interest of consumers and socio-economic impact.

  • Bumpy road to number portability

    Bumpy road to number portability

    Again, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has postponed the take-off date of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in the country. This latest development is coming after many unsuccessful attempts at jumpstarting the process. Bukola Afolabi examines the issues involved and provides insight into what mobile subscribers should expect when MNP comes on stream

    Looking Back

    The journey has been long and arduous for telephone users in Nigeria. Once upon a time, there was a certain NITEL. The lines were fixed, and you were billed at the end of every month. On a regular basis, you get clobbered with a crazy bill made up mostly of local calls you never made. And if you were unlucky, your line could be tapped and diverted for commercial international call operation by criminal elements and you had to either pay the bill or give up the line.

    There was later some reprieve for people who were very rich. Some private operators entered the scene to provide service using mainly Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). The reach was limited, in most cases restricted to Lagos and a few other major cities. The price was an arm and a leg.

    And then came ‘Hurricane GSM’, powered by MTN and Econet Wireless at the initial stage, and the situation changed rapidly for the better. State-owned Mtel complemented the big operators before running out of steam, but stronger players, Globacom and Etisalat, were later to join the fray. Expansion was rapid, and network growth was unprecedented. All you had to do was just purchase a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card from the network operators and get yourself a mobile phone. Suddenly, artisans could own mobile phones. ‘Overnight’ Nigeria became a poster child for explosive telecom growth on the African continent; all within a decade.

    Here and Now

    Twelve years on, the success story has continued. The sector has reached a level of development that many technology pundits did not think it could attain in three decades. But owing to the courage, diligence and industry of such operators as MTN who saw possibilities where others saw intimidating risks, Nigeria is a telecom success story today.

    However, a particular challenge has persisted through the years – poor quality of service. Though there are multiple network operators, a mobile user is locked in. In a bid to break out, he must purchase multiple mobile phones for all the various networks he wants to use. That led to the culture of multiple phone ownership, and what operators call multi-simming, which simply refers to switching two or more SIMs belonging to different operators in a phone.

    Those who insist on going for alternatives face switching costs associated with informing people about changing their number, printing new business cards and missing valuable calls from people who do not have the new number. Premium subscribers are particularly reluctant to throw away their numbers, as they are the segment that can suffer the most should they lose the numbers that their contacts know them with.

    However, from where we currently stand, the dayspring is risen. Freedom looms with mobile number portability.

    The game changer

    Mobile number portability is a system that allows consumers to change mobile network service provider without changing their mobile phone number. This game-changing feature which affords consumers the chance of getting service from any operator they want, not only increases competition level in mobile communication market but also increases consumer choice and welfare.

    For instance, a customer who has used a particular network for years and relocates to another area where his operator does not have coverage will now just seamlessly port into a new network with strong coverage in his new environment without having to lose his number.

    MNP in history

    The world’s first country to introduce MNP was Singapore in 1997, followed by the

    UK, Hong Kong and the Netherlands in 1999. Between 2000 and 2004, a number of other countries in Europe: Spain, Switzerland Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Ireland, France, Finland, Luxembourg, Greece (planned), Austria and the USA had joined the train. The African experience reveals that South Africa in 2006 commenced the MNP, while Kenya officially launched its own in April, 2011. Interestingly, our West African neighbours, Ghana, launched MNP on July 7, 2011 to become the third country in Africa to do so.

    Nigeria’s telecommunications regulatory body, the National Communications Commission, NCC, had fixed June 2012 for MNP implementation, but shifted the date on the grounds that it needed time to conclude the harmonisation of subscribers’ data collected during the SIM card registration exercise.

    According to the Commission’s Executive Vice Chairman, Eugene Juwah, “we deliberately delayed Mobile Number Portability because we don’t want to inject Number Portability in a state of anonymity of SIM cards; in a state of confusion and chaos of data registration.” He also said that it was necessary to know the identity of subscribers who are ‘porting’ their numbers at different times from one network to another.

    Following the development and approval of the MNP framework, the commission began plans to develop the regulatory, legal and technical framework for the implementation of MNP in Nigeria.

    Along these lines, a contract for the establishment of a Clearing House, a key component of the project, was awarded. A consortium of three firms won the bid to operate it – Interconnect Clearing House Nigeria (ICN), Telecordia (now part of Ericsson) and Saab Grintek pty Technologies. The regulatory body later stated that the eventual commencement would be in the first quarter of 2013, following the testing process which started in November last year.

    Freedom to Choose

    An essential element in the development of mobile markets is the ability of consumers to choose between competing providers – and to switch between providers quickly and easily. Subscribers place a value on their phone numbers, especially when they have used that number for an extended period of time. This is a huge cost to the user, who has to put up with poor Quality of Service (QoS) and maybe even unfriendly call tariffs.

    However, the existence of number portability enables such customers to make a simple change to a network operator of their choice with little or no costs attached. Consumers would further benefit from increased flexibility once they embrace portability. This flexibility would help foster competition among service providers because they know that a consumer could switch at any time. Also the MNP will increase pressure on the service providers to compete on price, quality, and customer service.

    Under the current lock-in model, loyalty is enforced, not earned. But MNP is a win-win. A recent study indicated that customer satisfaction is a strong determinant of customers’ propensity to switch, which implies that service providers are better off in the long run if they improve customer satisfaction in an attempt to minimise customers’ intention to switch providers.

    There will be greater choice for consumers and enhanced offerings from operators. There is more innovation as operators try to woo customers to come in and stay in. In the past, service providers have been accused of running an oligopolistic market, or a cartel. Industry experts claim that they use their technology to restrict choice and increase their influence at the market place. The result is that consumers, especially high value ones, who are not very happy with the service they are getting are unable to choose an alternative.

    However, mobile number portability will force service providers to seriously think about innovation, and develop products that address numerous unmet consumer needs as opposed to drawing the battle lines based on pricing alone.

    MNP is, however, no silver bullet

    Experts have, however, variously warned that MNP is no silver bullet for sub-optimal quality of service in Nigeria’s telecommunications sector. The umbrella body for telecom operators in Nigeria has maintained that unless the major causes of poor quality of service are tackled by industry stakeholders, MNP would even compound the problem, rather than solve it.

    The Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Engineer Gbenga Adebayo, in a recent interview opined that the main cause of quality of service challenge is inadequate capacity industry-wide.

    According to Adebayo, all the operators have yet to build enough capacity to adequately take care of the surging demand for service nationwide. In spite of that, he said, operators are facing increasing challenges in their bid to expand their capacity to take care of the demand for telecom service in Nigeria.

    He argued that until the operators enjoy the cooperation of all stakeholders in their bid to build capacity across the nation, no single operator can claim higher ground for long in terms of acceptable quality of service. He noted that the challenges imposed by the operating environment are common to all the operators and are therefore restricting the advancement of the industry.

    “I can’t assure you that it (number portability) will improve QoS and I will tell you why. If one network has glitches or goes down for whatever reason, I don’t have any guarantee that the other networks will have enough headroom to accommodate the capacity of the network that has gone down,” said Adebayo. “It is like having traffic problem on the third mainland bridge. It will definitely impact other smaller road networks. If the biggest player, for instance, experiences some glitches and subscribers migrate to the smaller players, the smaller players will not have enough head-room. It is simple logic,” he said.

    Going Forward

    It would be necessary for all stakeholders to work together to combat the challenges facing all the operators in their bid to provide acceptable quality of service in the country. It is when these challenges have been surmounted that MNP can truly translate into freedom of choice for telephone users in Nigeria. Clearly for the operators, the MNP would separate the men from the boys. As for the consumer, it is the emancipation of the SIM.

  • NCC warns job seekers on fake adverts

    NCC warns job seekers on fake adverts

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has advised job seekers not to respond to false recruitment adverts purportedly placed online by the commission.

    The Director (Public Affairs) of the Commission, Mr. Tony Ojobo, gave the advice in a chat with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Thursday.

    He said that the attention of the regulatory body had been drawn to a recruitment advert placed on a website known as joblistnigeria.com.

    Ojobo said the advert had called for applications from qualified persons to fill positions of economists, accountants, lawyers and project managers in the commission.

    “The commission wholly disassociates itself from this publication.

    “For the avoidance of doubt, our recruitment are usually advertised on the commission’s website and in the national dailies,’’ he said.

    Ojobo advised job seekers to ignore such adverts.

    “Anyone who patronises this website and its publication does so at his or her own risk.

    “The commission shall not take any responsibility for persons who fall prey to this scam,’’ he added.

    He, however, called on security agencies to assist in fishing out characters behind the advert.

    Ojobo said the telecom umpire had not made any effort to identify those behind the website as it was not its duty to do so.

     

  • NCC arrests 75 agents running illegal Sim cards registration

    NCC arrests 75 agents running illegal Sim cards registration

    National Communications Commission (NCC), said it has arrested 75 agents operating Sim Card registration for engaging in fraudulent practices.

    Five of the agents were apprehended in Minna, will the remaining 70 were arrested in other states in the North Central and South West regions of the country.

    The NCC Head of Enforcement, Mr. Efosa Idehen, disclosed this on Wednesday after the arrest of five agents who engage in fraudulent registration of Sim cards in Minna.

    He accused the arrested agents of pre-registering and selling registered and fully activated Sim cards to the customers.

    Idehen further said the mop-up of agents into illegal Sim cards registration will be extended to other parts of the country in the next six weeks.

    According to him, ‘’agents of fraudulent Sim cards registration have no where to run as the Commission already have the details of everyone and we have been trailing and monitoring these agents since 2012’’.

    He disclosed that five out of identified six suspects had been picked up in Minna, Niger state capital lamenting that some of the agents had more than one machine with them.

    “Today, we came to Minna trailing six lined for three mobile operators. One of the operators, MTN had three lines while Airtel had one and Glo had two machines. The operators fully coperated with us as they brought the agents to their office where they were arrested. We learnt that some agents had machines from each network.”

    The Head of Enforcement then pleaded with Nigerians to allow the registration process work the way it was planned to work stressing that if it works, it will go a long way in being able to track up criminals, help for research purpose and help NCC in having a clean and organized database.