At first when I heard about the mobile number portability in Nigeria that allows you to swap from one network to the other without losing your phone number, I thought it was the biggest joke of the century. I asked my self if it was really possible to change from one network to the other without losing your phone number which was held unanswered until I watched the interview that was held by Channels Tv  with the Director of Public Affairs of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

The Mobile number portability is more or like a different network to different networks swapping method. That means, a subscribers will be allowed to migrate from his current service providers to another service provider of his choice without having to lose his/her current phone number. To be more explicit, assuming I am using an Airtel line and I wish to move over to MTN, I really don’t have to make use of the new MTN Mobile number. All I need do is to request a change from the right service provider and that’s all. When someone calls my Airtel number, I will receive that call on my MTN line.

Mobile Number Portability In Nigeria

To show how it works, if you wish to change from your current network to the other without losing your phone number, this is what you should do. After requesting a change from your network service provider, service provider B gives you a new sim card. Basically, there are some terminologies associated with the mobile number portability services, which includes Subscribers, Port In, Port Out, Donor and recipient. These various terms used in the mobile number portability service have their different meanings. The below table shows the various meanings of each:

S/N

TERMS FOR MOBILE NO. PORTABLITY

 MEANING
1.

Subscribers-                      –

 The simply means the actual customer that owns the number for the migration or to be ported
2.

Port In-                            –

 Refers to moving in or joining the new service provider
3.

Port Out-                           –

 Used when the customer wants to leave his current service provider
4.

Donor                               –

 Refers to the network service provider the subscriber is migrating from.
5.

Recipient-                           –

 Refers to the Network service provider the subscriber is migrating to

With the various explanations gotten from the table above, if I wish to move from Airtel to MTN, it simply means that I wish to port out from Airtel and Port in to MTN. This practically means that Airtel is the Donor while MTN is the recipient.

I guess I have made an explanation to the various terms. Now lets get to how you can practically change from one network to the other using this mobile number portability service. To do this, you will need to visit your recipient operator. You will be given a mobile number portability request form to fill. Please note that you are expected to go with some identities just incase it is required from you. A recent passport photograph, you must be able to make available the serial number of your SIM card, your Sim should be registered and active too. If you meet up with all these requirements, the recipient network gives you a Sim which will be registered there. You will be asked to SMS  the word PORT to the short code 3232. This is very important as it will aid the NPC in accepting your request.

Once you have done all these, and your request is validated successfully, your Sim card becomes automatically activated for use. One thing that is certain about your migration is that any leftover credit on your former Sim card will be automatically deducted to zero.

There are two things you should take note of:

  1. You can only move from one network to the other once in 90 days after your recent migration.
  2. When you are fully migrated to your current network, all terms and condition governing your Donor network seize to affect you as you will be automatically be controlled according to the rules and regulation governing your recipient network service providers.

I hope this is very much explanatory. Further questions about this will be entertained using the comment box below.

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