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The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has disclosed that it granted two mobile network operators, MTN and 9mobile, approval to carry out a trial on national roaming services for a period of 3 months.
According to the NCC, the trial started on August 1, 2020, and is expected to end on October 31, 2020.
While making the disclosure on Sunday, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Professor Umar Danbatta, said the primary objective of the National Roaming Service is to encourage network resource sharing among operators.
With the approval, the telecommunication firms are expected to configure their networks to begin test and simulation for customer experience. The trial covers a few local governments, designated as the National Roaming geographic area, in Ondo State.
National roaming services means that subscribers in Nigeria can seamlessly make calls in areas of the country where their network operators do not cover, because such networks have entered into an agreement with other operators that have services in those geographical areas.
The subscribers to the various telecoms are already enjoying these services from their network providers, when they travel outside the country.
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 utilizing the network coverage of other networks.
Danbatta disclosed that the National Roaming Services would lead to operational expenditure (OPEX) optimization and capital expenditure (CAPEX) efficiencies capable of freeing up resources to expand mobile network coverage to unserved and underserved communities across the country.
He said the measure is also expected to lead to improved quality of service delivery to subscribers.
Danbatta said, “The successful implementation of the trial will enable 9Mobile subscribers to access MTN network service within the National Roaming trial geographical areas without the need for an MTN Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card.”
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