The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has granted two mobile network operators MTN and 9mobile approval to carry out trial on National roaming services for a period of three months.
With this approval EMTS(9Mobile) and MTN are expected to configure their networks to begin test and simulation for customer experience. According to The News Guru, the trial approval covers a few local governments, designated as the National Roaming geographic area, in Ondo State.
Speaking to newsmen on Sunday in Abuja, Dr Ikechukwu Adinde, NCC Director, Public Affairs, said Roaming Service enables a mobile subscriber to automatically make and receive voice calls, send and receive data, or access other services when travelling outside the coverage of a particular network geographical area by utilising the network coverage of other networks.
National roaming services means that subscribers in Nigeria can seamlessly make calls in areas of the country their Network operators do not cover because such networks have entered into agreement with other operators that have services in those geographical areas.
According to the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, the primary objective of the National Roaming Service trial is to encourage network resource sharing among operators.
He said this will lead to operational expenditure (OPEX) optimisation and capital expenditure (CAPEX) efficiencies, leading to freeing up of resources to expand mobile network coverage to unserved and underserved communities across the country which will lead to improved Quality of Service (QoS) delivery to subscribers.
“The successful implementation of the trial will enable EMTS, subscribers, to access MTN network service within the National Roaming trial geographical area without the need for an MTN Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card,” Danbatta said.
