Whereas the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), weekend revealed that the initial speed with which subscribers embraced Mobile Number Portability (MNP) amongst telecommunications operators has reduced, hitting all time low of 32,873 in June to 39,535 in May, showing a decrease of 6,662, analysts have identified the reason.
Investigations showed that subscribers prefer suspending loyalty to a network and walking down the street to pick up a new SIM card from another preferred network which takes less than 30 minutes, than running the bureaucracy of porting process.
According to NCC’s “Incoming and Outgoing Porting Activities of Mobile Network Operators Report’’ posted on its website, out of the 32,873 porting activities in June, 16,714 were “Incoming Porting Activities”, while 16,159 were “Outgoing Porting Activities”.
It said that in the outgoing table, 5,030 subscribers moved from MTN Nigeria to other networks through Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in June.
Subscribers that left MTN’s network decreased by 1,537 as against 6,567 customers that dropped the network in May.
NCC said that 4,531 customers moved from Airtel Nigeria; showing a decrease of 2,009 subscribers against 6,540 that left the service provider in May.
Also, 4,902 subscribers moved from Globacom Nigeria in June, representing an increase of 116 customers that left the network, as against 4,789 that left in May.
It said that 1,696 customers of Etisalat Nigeria, now 9mobile, ported to other networks within the same period, a decrease of 130, when compared with 1,826 users that left in May.
In the incoming table, 9mobile led with an additional 12,498 customers joining its network in June.
Airtel Nigeria came second on the gainers’ list with 2,020 subscribers; 1,445 subscribers moved to MTN Nigeria, while Globacom Nigeria got 751 customers.
The report shows that in spite of the loan repay challenge faced by Etisalat Nigeria (now 9mobile), Nigerian telecommunications users still have confidence in the network, hence, moving to its services.
Business Hilights recalls that MNP was flagged off on April 22, 2013 by the NCC with the aim of deepening competition in the industry.
