Telecom industry - Much has been said about the Nigerian telecom industry in the last decade. From January 2001 when the digital mobile licence auction was conducted by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, through August of the same year when the GSM operators rolled out services till this day, the industry has been abuzz with activities in a manner that beguiles the mind. The 10-year journey has been captured in two succinct words: telecom revolution. Not many will dispute this superlative description of the activities in a sector that was once the reserved turf of a poorly-run state monopoly. There are several reasons to concur that the once staid industry steeped in the maggoty stupor of corruption and red tape has undergone mind-blowing transformation. In 10 years, it grew from a little over 400,000 lines industry to one bursting with over 90 million lines; from a miserly job giver to one that now offers good jobs in tens of thousands and ancillary jobs in hundreds of thousands and from a $50 million industry in investment to over $18 billion.

This is what makes it a revolution. In Nigeria , when prices of goods and services go up, they stay up, but telecom simply bucks the trend. In the beginning, price of telephony services were high with SIM card selling for N20,000 and subscribers having to pay N50 for every minute or in some cases for less than a minute. Today, SIM cards sell for a penny and for as low as 17k or less for a second you can make the call. This is another pleasant part of the revolution.

Yet, there is an even bigger revolution waiting to happen. It is called number portability. This is a technical jargon in telecom. It simply means a situation in which a subscriber can stop using a particular network and migrate to another network without having to acquire another number. It means an MTN subscriber with an MTN line can ditch MTN network and start using the Glo network but still retaining his/her old MTN number. In the same vein, a Glo subscriber with Glo line can decide to dump Glo for MTN. It is that easy and convenient. It is one of the many special features of modern telecom technology.

Number portability is not a newfangled marvel in the global telecom bourse. It is part of the services menu in other telecom jurisdiction across the world. In the US , all over Europe, South America and Asia including some parts of Africa , porting from one network to another is part of the service offerings of telcos.

The Executive Vice Chairman, EVC, of the NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, says the commission would introduce number portability some time next year. At a recent event to mark a decade of telecom revolution and the 8th anniversary of the Telecom Consumer Parliament, a consumer rights advocacy and protection forum organised by the Consumer Affairs Bureau of the commission, Juwah allayed the fears of subscribers. He said the introduction of number portability will not occasion a spurt in the prices of telecom services. Rather, he told the audience, it would engender another type of revolution, this time price revolution.

Here is how: Once it is introduced, it means that the power to choose is automatically transferred into the hands of telecom consumers. In the real sense, this will make the consumer truly king as he/she can determine which network to port to. There are reasons a subscriber could decide to ditch one network for another. They include if the network is unfairly charging high tariff, if it is offering poor quality of service, or extorting money through dubious billings. It might be any reason from the logical to the ludicrous. The bottomline is that the right to choose and the power to make a choice lie with the subscriber. It means a subscriber can use the same number but different networks to communicate. It has the great advantage of making the subscriber not to worry about acquiring new number or carrying multiple handsets, each handset for each service provider. With number portability, it is one number for multiple networks. In most cases, people get used to their phone numbers. They get emotionally attached to it or that of their spouses and friends. Number portability helps the subscriber to retain his or her treasured number even when such person has left his or her original service provider. It gives the subscriber the power to negotiate and to dictate the market price for telephony services.

The direct implication of number portability is that it will motivate telcos to improve their network infrastructure and keep their tariff very competitive. Telecom business thrives on volume. The more the subscriber base, the more the profit. Thus, every service provider is mindful of the possibility of losing its subscribers to a rival network. This keeps the operators on their toes. For far too long, it appears some service providers have taken their consumers for granted. They bill them for poor services and in some cases for services not rendered. To make matters worse, the operators show no remorse, rather they point to poor national infrastructure, insecurity, poor power supply among others as reasons why they cannot offer services superior to what they dish out. Yet, year after year, the same operators declare obscene profits that are clearly do not connect to the realities of the economy. Such operators are up against the wall, as number portability will rein them in.

NCC says it has licensed a consortium for the implementation of the porting scheme which will commence soon after the back-office integration of the SIM card registration exercise. This is logical. However, the regulator would do well to educate Nigerians on the whys and wherefores of number portability to enable them make informed decisions and choices when it takes off. It is obvious that many consumers in the country do not fully grasp the essence and sense in number portability. This category of consumers needs to be educated and the enlightenment should begin now. I have had the privilege of porting from one network to another in the US and UK . It works and it gives the consumer a sense of superiority in the consumer-service provider relationship. In Nigeria , it holds the magic to kick-start another round of telecom revolution, this time, price revolution and the biggest beneficiary would be the consumers.

Umukoro, ICT blogger, writes from Lagos

Ray Umukoro

Daily Champion/21/10/2011