National Mobile Roaming Extra Revenue for Operators, NCC

A NEW National Mobile Roaming policy which would soon be implemented by Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, may mean extra revenue for mobile telephone operators and better roaming efficiency for subscribers.

An executive brief from the Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta requesting inputs from concerned stakeholders, experts and interested on National Mobile Roaming stated that roaming is a feature in several communication licences that has not yet been utilised in Nigeria.

The ICT-BIZAFRICA learnt that the Commission has taken note of expert opinion that the implementation of National Mobile Roaming could bring about less investment costs since infrastructure sharing divides the investment burden.

The NCC also outlined that the National Mobile Roaming, NMR, will besides promoting efficient use of resources make for easy market entry adding that it offers better choice of service, less negative environmental impact and promotes universal service provision.

 

According to Danbatta, even though it is technically possible to provide facility for domestic roaming, appropriate legal and regulatory framework have to be in place in order to encourage as well as assist the operators in realising roaming arrangement between them without any uncertainty.

He said that there is need to ensure that the policies, rules and regulation to be adopted regarding national roaming are formulated in detailed discussion with the operators as they are the main entities responsible for the successful implementation of the domestic roaming facility.

Explaining the significance of the National Mobile Roaming, the NCC boss said that there are roaming arrangements in several countries at varying degrees facilitated by the policies, rules and regulations in order to facilitate the provision of services by new entrants until they have rolled out their networks to significant number of places.

He noted that the NMR will help to avoid duplication of networks at less populated and remote areas, provide seamless service in areas where movement of people is significant such as highways, provide emergency communication when home network is not available or when the quality of service of the home network is relatively low, thereby benefiting both the operators and the subscribers.

The EVC observed that prior agreement between operators enables the subscribers to roam into another network in case the home network is not available saying that some regulators encourage roaming as a form of infrastructure sharing in order to discourage investment which do not make business sense, so that the existing network can be maximally utilised.

Already, the NCC has sent out a consultation paper to concern stakeholders that would enable it understand the perspective of the sector that has several questions that need to be answered.

The consultation paper is aimed at seeking expert views, opinions and suggestion from the licensed mobile service providers as well as any other interested party.

The Commission intends to rely on this process to develop an appropriate regulatory instrument for the successful implementation of National Mobile Roaming services in Nigeria.