Unregistered telephone lines to be barred – NCC

 According to Sun News
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), yesterday, disclosed that unregistered telephone lines would soon be barred from accessing telecomm unications services in the country.
This was revealed shortly after the flag off of the much awaited Mobile Number Portability (MNP), scheme in Lagos, by the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Dr. Eugen Juwah.
According to him, it was necessary to bar unregistered numbers, since the commission had given more than enough time for SIM registration adding that Subscribers Identification Module (SIM) Card registration, will soon come to an end. MNP, he maintained, has been identified as one of such services that could further deepen the competition in the telecommunications market.
The EVC noted that with the launch of MNP, telecoms consumers will no longer need to acquire new numbers in other to move from one network service provider to another.  Chief Operating Officer, Interconnect Clearing House, Uche Onwudiwe, explained that for MNP service to be accessed, the subscriber who is a donor will have to fill a form and send ‘SMS PORT’ to a short code 3232, which is universal to all network operators, and then receive option notifying him/her of porting approval or denial.

He explained that subscribers will then receive a confirmation message from interconnect clearing house affirming porting success which will be processed within 48hours. Meanwhile, the four major Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) Services providers were also on ground to lend their voices to the official implementation of MNP.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Segun Ogunsanya, the scheme is a quality drive initiative and operators, survival instinct which will lessen the regulatory burden of the NCC.
“The NCC can now focus on other areas of regulations that will make investment in the telecoms sector to thrive,” he said.
On his part the Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria, Brett Ghosen, said that MNP was another revolution in the history of Nigerian telecoms sector, which shows that the sector was driven by innovation to give customers choice.