Newswatch Nigeria can report that year 2021 may go down in history for Nigeria as the year with remarkable strides and landmark achievements especially in the telecommunications sector, if the latest policy introduced, with the aim to bridge the wide gap between the under-served and the unserved areas of mobile communications network coverages in the country is anything to go by.
The industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission recently made public the introduction of the long anticipated National Roaming Policy – a comprehensive regulatory instrument which prescribes roaming services nationwide in the telecoms sector.
Planning so far into the year, has shown that Nigeria wants to achieve a new projects of 90% population coverage for 4G/45 technology — by at least two operators — and broadband penetration of 70% in 2025. This will be determined by the number of people with access to broadband at a price of not more than ₦390 (US$1.06) for 1GB of data by 2025.
WHAT IS NATIONAL ROAMING POLICY 2021?
According to the commission led by Prof. Umar Danbatta the need for a blueprint that serves as government instrument of regulating business and infrastructure on network roaming, telecoms service collocation, licences approval, standard and key performance indicator, monitoring, evaluation, standard compliance and among other objective requirements and scope specifications binding on all operators is what the government through the commission referred to National Roaming Policy.
The EVC who further explained this new policy noted that national roaming and active infrastructure sharing are initiatives used in achieving improved coverage, cost reduction and efficient utilization of scarce network resources by regulatory agencies in telecoms.
For the NCC Boss, national roaming is very similar to International Roaming in operational methodology, and aims to improve overall customer QoS experience across the country, and hence it is being instituted by the Commission to drive the objective of a nationwide network coverage in the country.
Short Supply of Tower / Need for National Roaming Services
Nigeria still grapples with poor quality of service (QoS) and intermittent disruption to service and stakeholders have since traced this to the number of subscribers per tower which sits around 5,700 (184,000,000 subscribers vs. 31,000 towers). According to NCC, there are checks and balances to ensure a proper review of all Active Infrsstructure Sharing arrangements between operators to ensure QoS is not impacted.
How National Roaming Service Works in Subscribers
The Commission said it has ensured that subscribers interest is protected in the provision of the National Roaming Policy and its eventual implementation stating that “the roaming nationwide is a means of ensuring the investments of operators are deployed in such a way that the national objective of providing telecommunications services to all Nigerians is enhanced.”
Danbatta explained in recent industry forum that the National Roaming Service will enables a mobile subscriber to automatically make and receive voice calls, send and receive data, or access other services when traveling outside a particular network geographical area by using the network coverage of other networks with roaming arrangements to access service.
Roaming TRIAL:
Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of NCC, Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, said the primary objective of the National Roaming Service trial was to encourage network resource sharing among operators.
The EVC confirmed the National Roaming Services trial was carried out in Ondo state between MTN Nigeria and 9Mobile stating that the outcome was not just successful but thoroughly done and discovered purposeful effective for Nigerian telecom needs.
What Operators Should Know About Policy for National Roaming Services
Are you an operators or prospective operator with much ado about roaming services in Nigeria, find below the three(3) basic scope for the National Roaming Services Guidelines.
The Nigerian Communications Commission said;
(1) These Guidelines shall apply only to holders of licences validly issued by the
Commission, containing a condition that makes the holder eligible to enter into a
national roaming service agreement.
(2) National Roaming services shall be provided within the geographical boundaries of
Nigeria.
(3) These Guidelines are to be read in conjunction with the Act, the Collocation
Guidelines, Interconnection Regulations, Quality of Service Regulations, Competition
Practices Regulations, other subsidiary legislations that may be issued by the
Commission from time to time, and relevant Licence Conditions.
