Monday, May 31, 2010

MNP To Begin In Nigeria During H2

Nigeria's tele­coms regulator, Nigerian Com- munications Com- mission (NCC) has confirmed that the delayed Mobile Number Portability will be introduced in the second-half of this year, confirming earlier statements about the issue.

Mr. Stephen Bello, the acting vice-chairman of the Commission, told IT News Africa that  it had become necessary to introduce MNP because of the high telecom subscriber base in the country.
Mr. Earnest Ndukwe, former CEO of NCC, had set May 2009 as the date for the announcement of a timetable for MNP takeoff. On the mode of implementation, he said that the NCC would engage the services of an independent company to oversee the process. He also revealed that the local operators were on board and ready.

Earlier this year, the NCC retained the services of KPMG Consultancy Services as consultants for the development of Regulatory and Technical Framework for implementation of number portability in Nigeria.

According to figures from the Mobile World analysts, the country ended last year with 73 million mobile subscribers, representing a population penetration level of 50%. The market shares of the operators are: MTN Nigeria (42.2%), Glo Mobile (22.5%), Zain (20.2%), Etisalat Nigeria (4.7%), Visafone (3.7%), Multi-Links Telecommunications (2.7%), Starcomms (2.3%) and Reliance Telecommunications (1.7%)

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