MTN, Globacom, Etisalat Flout Porting Rules in Nigeria

Fri, Nov 27, 2015
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BREAKING NEWS, Business

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The Nigerian Communications Commission says MTN, Globacom and Etisalat broke rules for Mobile Number Portability in Nigeria

By Anayo Ezugwu  |  Dec 7, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT  |

THE Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, is accusing MTN Nigeria, Globacom and Etisalat of violating the Mobile Number Portability, MNP, process time obligations in the third quarter of 2015. The commission made this known in Lagos while releasing its 2015 ‘Third Quarter Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Report.

In order the check the increasing cases of port request rejections, the NCC has resolved to monitor operators and take appropriate actions. “Consequent upon the above, series of compliance checks were carried out regarding timer violations by donor operators with respect to ‘validation and deactivation responses’, which have timelines of two hours and an hour, respectively,’’ NCC said.

According to the report, during the compliance check in the quarter, it was observed that there was a timer deactivation violation by Etisalat, regarding a corporate port request of over 63 lines belonging to Neoconde Energy Limited. NCC said the company had initiated a corporate port out request from Etisalat to Airtel on August 7, 2015, at 9.13 am, but was partially completed as at 1.52 pm on the same day. “As a result, these 63 subscribers were unable to receive calls from Etisalat’s network,’’ it noted.

The commission also said a timer deactivation violation was noticed from MTN, regarding a Corporate Port request of more than 109 lines belonging to Nigerian Breweries Plc. According to NCC, the company initiated a corporate port out request from MTN to Glo through lead MSISDN: 07036735494 on August 11, 2015, at 1.20 pm, but was partially completed as at 11.22 am on August 14.

“As a result, these subscribers were not able to receive calls from MTN subscribers. In the same vein, a timer validation violation by MTN regarding four individual Port requests from MSISDNs: 08139382308, 08143810152, 08135485305 and 08162108093. MTN breached the timer of two hours for validation of four port requests from the NPC as stated in the MNP Business Rules.”

The telecoms umpire said a timer validation violation was observed from Globacom, regarding 11 individuals and one corporate port request. NCC said Glo had breached the two hours allowable for validation of six port requests from the NPC, as stated in the MNP business rules.

It said Globacom validated one of these port requests over nine hours after receipt from the MNP administrator. “Glo also breached the one allowable hour for the Donor to deactivate 147 Ported out lines belonging to Reckitt Ltd consistent with provisions of the MNP Business Rules. All the above timer violations are currently undergoing enforcement actions.”

The regulatory body said its compliance activity was consistent with Section 89 of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003. It said the section mandated the commission to monitor all significant matters relating to the performance of all licensed telecoms service providers and publish annual reports at the end of each financial year.

NCC said it had developed ‘Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement’ strategies to prosecute the above mandate and achieve its objective of fair competition, ethical market conduct and optimal quality of service in the Nigerian telecommunications industry.

NCC had on April 22, 2013, launched the MNP to enable mobile subscribers to migrate from one network to another without changing their old numbers. According to NCC, the MNP was designed to give consumers varieties of choice “but the major issue is for us to improve on our infrastructure and improve services so that we don’t have to be moving from network to network. For the successful implementation of this initiative, the commission has developed comprehensive porting guidelines and engaged a Number Portability Clearing House managed by a reputable and neutral operator which would act as a centralised database and a unified billing system interface.”

— Dec 7, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT

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