The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has granted approval for two mobile network operators, MTN Nigeria and 9mobile to carry out trial of National Roaming Service for three months.
National roaming an agreement among operators to use each other’s networks to provide services in geographic areas where they have no coverage. Such arrangements effectively multiply any one carrier’s ability to cover the entire country, without actually having to
NCC said the started on August 1 and will end on October 31, 2020.
With the approval, the telcos 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 areas in Ondo State.
The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof Umar Danbatta, said the primary objective of the NRS trial was to encourage network resource sharing among operators.
According to Danbatta, it will lead to operational expenditure optimisation and capital expenditure 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 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.
