The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has granted an approval for two mobile network operators (MNOs) to carry out trial on National Roaming Service for three months.
However, the approval for the National Roaming Service trial which was granted on 1st August, 2020 would terminate on Saturday.
The two telecoms companies are Mobile Telecommunication Network (MTN) Nigeria and the Emerging Markets Telecommunication Service Limited (EMTS), trading as 9Mobile in Nigeria.
This, EMTS and MTN would enable them configure their networks to begin test and simulation for customer experience.
Besides, the trial approval would cover a few local governments designated as the National Roaming geographic area in Ondo State.
Also, Roaming Service would enable 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.
NCC Executive Vice-Chairman (EVC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta said the primary objective of the National Roaming Service trial was to encourage network resource sharing among operators.
This, he said would lead to operational expenditure (OPEX) optimisation and capital expenditure (CAPEX) efficiencies leading to freeing up resources to expand mobile network coverage to serve and underserved communities across the country with a view to improving Quality of Service (QoS) delivery to subscribers.
He said: “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.”
