Factors Influencing Mobile Network Porting in Nigeria
Mobile Number Portability (MNP) was first introduced in Singapore in 1997, after which both the United Kingdom and the Netherlands adopted it in 1999, with a number of other countries in Europe, America and Africa (South Africa – 2006, Ghana – 2012) following suit. By September 2008, 48 countries around the world had launched MNP, and some 154 million people, i.e., 4% of all mobile subscribers globally and 13% of subscribers in countries that implemented MNP ported their mobile numbers. By the end of December 2013, 67 countries (including Nigeria) had adopted the MNP. The MNP system has brought considerable benefits to subscribers, such as lower rates, more service options to choose from, higher quality of service, and a range of other benefits linked to switching service providers.
Typically, there are three types of MNP systems:
- Local number portability: Subscribers are allowed to move between different local service areas of the same operator without changing their mobile numbers. In this case, the subscriber is still served by the same operator but in a different service area. This was adopted in China, whereby a China Mobile subscriber moving from Beijing to Shanghai remains a subscriber without changing the mobile number even while switching from the operator’s Beijing service area to Shanghai service area.
- Cross-operator portability: Subscribers are allowed to switch their service operator (while retaining their number) to benefit from less expensive or better service plans in the same local area and usually the same city or country, as is the case with the MNP introduced in Nigeria, where subscribers are allowed to switch to another operator entirely while maintaining the same mobile number.
- Hybrid portability: Both the local area and operator are changed simultaneously, which is a combination of the above two options. This is also followed in China, where a customer moving from Beijing to Shanghai, also switches the operator, e.g., switching from Beijing local service area of China Mobile to the Shanghai local service area of China Unicom.
Traditionally, subscribers of mobile telecommunications services were required to give up their number when they switched operators—change to a new operator resulted in the use of a new number. Hence, subscribers were hesitant to switch from their existing operator to a competitor, thereby inhibiting effective competition in the mobile telecommunications market. With the introduction of MNP, industry observers expect more consumers to switch from one operator to another when they are not satisfied with the rates or the services offered by their existing operator.
The introduction of MNP in the Nigerian telecommunications sector was widely hailed by many industry experts and subscribers. It was believed that this would at least give the average Nigerian subscriber a chance to switch from a non-performing network to another while retaining their number. However, even after a year since the April 2013 launch, the level of adoption is low.
