The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has again
fixed another date for the launch of Mobile Number Portability (MNP). This
time, the commission chose April 22 as the new launch date across all networks
of Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM).
The Director of Corporate
Affairs at NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo, who dropped the hint Thursday, said in
a telephone interview that NCC eventually settled for the April 22 MNP launch
date, having been convinced by the network operators that their networks were
ready for the roll out of Mobile Number Portability in Nigeria.
NCC had earlier warned that it was
not going to shift grounds on the planned roll out of MNP, and insisted that
the roll out must be in April this year, without mentioning any particular date
in April. The reason for not fixing a particular launch date earlier, according
to Ojobo, was to allow the operators to choose a convenient date, based on the
state of readiness of their networks. He had however insisted that the roll out
of MNP would not exceed April this year.
NCC had fixed April 1, for the
launch of MNP, but shifted it to an unknown date in the same month of April,
after telecoms operators came begging for three weeks extension to enable them
complete test-run of their networks, in preparation for the eventual roll out.
In January, NCC fixed March 25, as
the new date for the commencement of MNP, but again, telecoms operators were
unable to meet up with the March date, a situation which compelled NCC to
further shift date to April 1.
Having discovered that the April 1
date was not going to be feasible, NCC Thursday, announced April 22 as the new
date for the launch of MNP.
In technical parlance, Mobile Number
Portability is a process that allows subscribers to migrate from one network to
another, in search of better quality of service, while still retaining the
original phone number, irrespective of the network the subscriber chooses to
migrate to.
NCC in its released guidelines for
MNP, made porting free of charge for subscribers, but insisted that subscribers
could port their numbers, once in every 90 days.
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