Number Portability: Subscribers Blame Network Providers For Failure

R-L: Nawoj President, Mrs Ifeyinwa Omowole, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Press Council, Mr Nnamdi Njemanze, National President of nuj, Mr abdulwaheed Odusile, Senior Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina and the communications and Reporting Advisor, undp, Ms Toyin Adewale-Gabriel, at the public presentation of Reportage of 2015 Elections: A Monitoring Scorecard of Print and Online Media in Abuja, recently.

Network subscribers
have called on telecommunication firms in the country to make the plans of number portability a reality.
Some subscribers who spoke with The Tide Wednesday, in Port Harcourt over the issue, said the number portability plans was a noble project that would have reduced the negative effect of carrying several cell phones along at the same time.
One of them, Mr Tunji Balogun, said the package would have been allowed to succeed so as to reduce some level of hardship among subscribers.
He explained that the plan was actually for the comfort and convenience of subscribers, but regretted that it was yet to see the light of the day.
Balogun, pointed out that the network providers did not do enough home-work hence the seeming failure of the project.
Another subscriber, Nancy Briggs, said the plans would have eased off all major known stress in phone or network subscription.
She explained that the stress of retrieving lines upon loss or theft of a subscribers cell phone would have also reduced.
Briggs also said that the issue of barring subscribers lines due to non registration would not have  arisen since the platform was designed to accommodate all sim cards belonging to an individual.
In his views, Mrs Ihuoma Amos, blamed the alleged failed project on the inability of the regulatory bodies to go tough on network providers in the country.
She reasoned that a close monitoring by the regulators would have pushed the telecommunication giants to maintain the number portability project.
Amos also regretted that subscribers are not concerned about the happenings in the industry, saying no one has been bold enough to confront or sue network providers over any failed project.
Others have also called on the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), to re-visit the issue and see to it that the project succeeds.