Association of Licensed Telecom
Operators of Nigeria has decried the criticism of the newly introduced
Mobile Number Portability service.
It said porting would enable mobile telephone subscribers to cut their expenditure.
The association also said subscribers
would pay more for additional lines and mobile phones they used, if they
decided not to make their numbers portable.
Speaking to our correspondent in a
telephone interview on Friday, the Chairman, ALTON, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo,
who denied any hitches in the service, said those who criticised porting
had little knowledge of its benefits.
“It means that you’ll carry additional
burden, including additional handsets and additional costs on the SIM
cards. Such subscribers will be forced to carry about two or more
handsets and purchase additional lines.
“Getting another sim is not an
alternative to porting. When you port, you’ll have your number, features
and services with you. When you buy a new SIM, you’ll have an
independent number with independent features and independent provider,”
he said.
Adebayo said contrary to reports, more subscribers were porting and had been enjoying the benefits in the service.
He explained that to port to another service provider might take 48 hours because many internal processes were involved.
He said, “Don’t forget that when you
move from one network to another, you’re moving all your records –
billing, accounting and subscriber records – as well as your data base.
There has to be a transfer process.
“If you’re moving from one network to
another, you cannot carry your debts into another network. Therefore,
there has to be account clearance before porting can be activated for
you. These are the reasons why porting takes a bit of time before it is
done.”
The Nigeria Communication Commission had
on April 22, 2013, launched a service which enables mobile telephone
subscribers to port from one service provider to another, while
retaining their telephone number.
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Mandating cell providers to invest some their huge profits in the network infrastructure would minimize low quality service.
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