Posted by Everest Amaefule and Jonah Iboma on
The Nigerian Communications Commission has given approval for MTN Nigeria Communications Limited to begin a new subscriber numbering system that will start with a prefix other than 0803.
The Nigerian Communications Commission has given approval for MTN Nigeria Communications Limited to begin a new subscriber numbering system that will start with a prefix other than 0803.
Indications are that the new numbering system may begin with 0806.
Sources at the regulatory agency confirmed the new numbering system, which will make its entry into the Nigerian telecoms environment soon.
'Yes, MTN has applied and got approval for a new numbering system. The Executive Vice-Chairman has also endorsed the request," the source said.
Analysts dismissed the speculation that the move was because the 0803 prefix was nearing full capacity, pointing out that the current format allows for 10million subscribers, whereas MTN has just about 5million currently.
It is believed that the action might be part of a strategic marketing plan by the company ahead of the unified licensing regime that is expected to take effect in 2006.
Under the regime, telecoms operators will be allowed to use any technology to roll out service.
The 2001 licensing of mobile telephony operators resulted in Vmobile being assigned 0802 code, the Nigeria Mobile Telecommunications Limited got 0804, while 0805 was given to Glo Mobile, the mobile subsidiary of second national operator, Globacom.
Investigations by our correspondent, however, showed that the regulatory agency was yet to release the new numbering system to the mobile operator as a result of indebtedness.
This may have affected the planned implementation and introduction of the new numbering system by the mobile operator this month.
The new numbering system will cost MTN about N1billion in payments to the regulatory agency.
The calculation by NCC therefore is not to add to the debts of the mobile company until it has cleared a significant proportion of its indebtedness.
MTN External Relations Manager, Mr. Andrew Okeleke, declined to speak on the introduction of the new numbering system until he had got clarification from the relevant department of the company.
MTN attained the one million active subscriber mark in February 10, 2003, and as at December 31, 2004, it had about 3,890,000 active subscribers on its network.
MTN made the first GSM call in the aftermath of the February 2001 issuance of digital mobile licences, on May 16, 2001. Thereafter, it launched commercial operations in August of the same year, beginning with Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt.