THE Nigerian Communications Commission has granted approval for two mobile network operators to carry out a three-month trial on National Roaming Service.
The two telecoms companies are Mobile Telecommunication Network (MTN) Nigeria and the Emerging Markets Telecommunication Service Limited (EMTS), 9Mobile.
With the approval, EMTS and MTN are expected to configure their networks to begin test and simulation for customer experience. The trial approval covers a few local governments, designated as the National Roaming geographic area, in Ondo State.
The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Umar Danbatta, said the primary objective of the National Roaming Service trial was to encourage network resource sharing among operators.
Roaming Service enables a mobile subscriber to automatically make and receive voice calls, send and receive data, or access other services when travelling outside a particular network geographical area by utilising the network coverage of other networks with roaming arrangements to access service.
Danbatta said the approval would lead to operational expenditure (OPEX) optimisation and capital expenditure (CAPEX) efficiencies, which would in turn lead to freeing up of resources to expand mobile network coverage to unserved and underserved communities across the country.
This, he added, would lead to improved Quality of Service 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, same as MTN subscribers,” he said.
