Regulator to implement national roaming service

It seems mobile telephone users in Nigeria will soon be able to enjoy good network services even when they are in areas that are either not covered or just partially covered by the networks they subscribe to.

According to a report by the Punch, the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) has begun a process that will lead to the mobile operators being mandated by the Commission to offer national roaming services to subscribers of the different networks on basis of reciprocity.

The NCC defines national roaming as the ability of a cellular subscriber to automatically make and receive voice calls, send and receive data, or access other services when they travel out of the coverage area of the home network by utilizing another network.

“It is a type of service or facility, which enables the subscriber of one operator to utilise the facilities of another operator with whom the subscriber has no direct pre-existing service or contractual relationship to place an outgoing call or receive an incoming call,” the Commission said, according to the Punch report.

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As part of the implementation process, the NCC recently brought stakeholders together, including operators and other licenses, a closed door meeting which was chaired by Ubale Maska, one of the Commission's executive commissioner for technical services.

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek reports that all stakeholders present at the meeting agreed that the service had become necessary.

The report further reveals that some participants at the forum agreed that national roaming should be mandated by the NCC while others wanted it to be allowed to run as a voluntary commercial agreement amongst the operators.

Roaming is traditionally a service that is prominent across national boundaries with subscribers having to pay various rates even for receiving calls when they roam their phone calls outside the country.