Quality of telecoms service has not significantly improved since the launch of the initiative that allows subscribers to switch their networks without changing their numbers yet as latest figures showed, fewer Nigerians are interested in porting. So I ask, is this a good thing?
This week, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said telecommunications service providers recorded 27,644 Mobile Number Portability (MNP) activities in December, 2016. According to the commission’s Incoming and Outgoing Porting Activities of Mobile Network Operators report, there was a decrease of 6,475 in the porting activities during the period as against 34,119 recorded in the preceding month.
It said that out of the total porting activities during the period, 14,059 were “incoming” while 13,585 were “outgoing”. The report also showed 4,747 subscribers migrated from Airtel to other networks during the month and that 4,349 customers moved from MTN to other networks.
It added that 3,010 subscribers left Globacom network to others, while 1,479 customers of Etisalat ported to other networks within the period.
For incoming porting statistics, the report revealed that Etisalat enjoyed 10,956 customers on its network to lead others during the period under review while MTN came second with 1,240 subscribers while Globacom had 1,005 subscribers and Airtel, 858 customers.
Is this a good thing?
If there is anything that could be inferred from the figures, customers’ dissatisfaction about service quality cuts across all networks; also, many subscribers ported to all the networks which also indicated that no operator is universally considered as the worst. This is a tough one.
I’m left with either of two options – people see the various operators to be the same or there is disappointment over the porting process itself making it to be unpopular among subscribers. It could actually be both since the porting process is not as aggressively promoted by the operators and regulator as other offerings.
