Relying on the powers conferred upon it by Section 70 of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003 and other enabling powers in that regard, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has released guidelines for National Roaming in Nigeria
The Commission averred in a notice posted on its website that the guidelines are issued to give effect to the provisions of licences which permit the licensees to enter into agreements to provide National Roaming services in Nigeria, subject to the prior approval of the Commission.
Just as most telecoms users, especially, those who frequently travel out of the country have been benefitting from international roaming service, which allows them to make and receive calls on foreign networks, national roaming service is designed to make the same possible locally as the network operators are yet to cover all parts of the country. This presupposes that a Globacom customer that moves to a remote area where only MTN service is available is automatically connected through MTN and vice versa.
Key provision of the procedure for national roaming as stipulated by the guidelines include that duly authorised service providers shall request and negotiate national roaming agreements with each other on bilateral and non-discriminatory terms. “A Roaming Seeker requesting for National Roaming services shall forward a duly completed Roaming Request Form A contained under Schedule 1 of these Guidelines to the Roaming Provider. “Where the Roaming Seeker receives no response from the Roaming Provider within 15 days of its request, the Roaming Seeker shall immediately notify the Commission in writing, and the Commission shall take necessary steps to ensure the Roaming Provider responds to the Roaming Request,” NCC stated under the legal provisions of the guidelines.
Besides, the guidelines also spell out other provisions such as Considerations for National Roaming Agreements; Dispute Resolution; Termination of Agreement; Provision of Subscriber Information, among other provisions aimed at ensuring smooth operation of the system.
The release of the guidelines for the full-blown rollout of the national roaming service in the country followed a successful trial carried out last year. As part of preparations to launch into the national roaming era, the NCC had last year approved a trial of the system for two mobile network operators, MTN and 9mobile.
With the approval, the two operators configured their networks for test and simulation for customer experience. The trial approval, according to the NCC, covered a few local governments, designated as the National Roaming geographic area, in Ondo State.
In his remarks on the approval, the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said the primary objective of the National Roaming Service trial was to encourage network resource sharing among operators. He said this would lead to operational expenditure (OPEX) optimisation and capital expenditure (CAPEX) efficiencies leading to freeing up of resources to expand mobile network coverage to unserved and underserved communities across the country, which will lead to improved Quality of Service (QoS) delivery to subscribers.
“The successful implementation of the trial will enable EMTS, subscribers, to access MTN network service within the National Roaming trial geographical area without the need for an MTN Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card,” the EVC averred.
Also, the Commission has fixed the duration of any national roaming agreement between service providers at three years, renewable for another three years.
According to Guidelines on National Roaming released by the commission, “duly authorised service providers shall request and negotiate National Roaming Agreements with each other on bi-lateral and non-discriminatory terms.”
Elaborating on the procedure and rules of engagement in the negotiation for roaming agreement, the NCC says a roaming seeker requesting for National Roaming services shall forward a duly completed Roaming Request Form A contained under Schedule1 of these Guidelines to the Roaming Provider.
The Commission made it clear, saying “Where the roaming seeker receives no response from the roaming provider within 15 days of its request, the roaming seeker shall immediately notify the commission in writing, and the commission shall take necessary steps to ensure the roaming provider responds to the roaming request.”
Procedurally, the roaming provider shall within 15 days of receipt of the roaming request notify the roaming seeker of its acceptance by completing the relevant section of the Response to Roaming Request Form B contained under Schedule 1 of the Guidelines.
Among other safety nets built into the guidelines to forestall undue corporate bully and arm-twisting among the service providers are that:
Parties shall thereafter enter into a Non-Disclosure Agreement and commence negotiations of the terms of the National Roaming Agreement.
Parties shall conclude negotiations on the terms of the National Roaming Agreement and execute same within 60 days from receipt of the Roaming Request.
Parties shall ensure that the National Roaming Agreement is submitted to the Commission for review and approval, prior to registration, within 14 days of execution by parties.
If within 15 days from the date of submission the Commission does not act on the National Roaming Agreement, such shall be deemed approved and registered.
The commission also said that once an agreement has been reached between the seeker and the provider, such agreement shall subsist for a period of three years, adding that “the commission reserves the right to permit parties to renew the National Roaming Agreement for another 3 years.” Any further extension must be subject to the approval of the NCC.
