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Nigeria: The power to transfer mobile numbers encourages competition

By  |  March 21, 2013

A new project for Nigeria’s mobile market, initiated by the Nigerian Communications Commission, is finally set to launch later this month as the regulator hopes to encourage more competition. Mobile number portability, or MNP, allows mobile phone users to change networks while maintaining their number. MNP owned by South Africa is the largest by subscribers, operating with a more than 41 percent share of the market by 2012’s end. While the NCC acknowledges that the plan has been “long-delayed,” a date of March 25 has been set for MNP’s launch. According to the country’s News Agency, only customers of Nigeria’s GSM mobile networks will be able to transfer their numbers to another carrier. Eventually, carrier CDMA is expected to operate on MNP as well.

 

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