Monitoring of Compliance with the Commission’s Direction on Routing
There is a standing directive that, Mobile Network Operators, (MNOs) and Interconnect Clearing Houses should forward their internet traffic, on a monthly basis, to the Commission, on, or, before the 10th of every preceding month.
This is to ensure that, Mobile Network Operators, (MNOs), route a minimum of 10% of interconnect traffic, through Interconnect Exchange Licensees, the NCC, took steps to ensure compliance, in the third quarter of 2019.
The report of August 2019 compliance exercise had been reviewed, with the findings and recommendations, forwarded, for Management’s consideration.
Compliance audit exercise of the MNP Platforms in quarter 3
In compliance with NCC’s mandate to monitor performance in the Mobile Number Portability, (MNP), scheme, as well as ensure seamless porting process, in accordance with the MNP Regulations 2014 and Business Rules and Port Order Processes, the Commission conducted a technical audit exercise, of the MNP Platform in Lagos, from September 4 – 6, 2019.
The objectives of the audit exercise included:
- To review the level of success NPC’s migration, of the MNP Platform, to its new technical partners, Porting Access Ltd;
- To conduct an in-depth review, of planned/ unplanned technical faults that occurred, within the period under review;
- Audit ‘Validation Responses, (T2) & Deactivation Responses, (T4), which have timelines of 2 hours and 1 hour, respectively, for the period under review;
- Review all port rejections, by the Donor, to ensure that, these rejections, are within the valid reasons, for rejection in the MNP Business Rules;
- Review the current status, of outstanding MNP fees owed, to the NPC Administrator, by Mobile Network Operators, (MNOs);
- Review all Emergency Repatriations and ‘Return to Block Operator’ transactions, for the past 5 months, (i.e. October 2018 – February 2019).
Based on findings from the audit exercise, the Commission directed Mobile Network Operators, to carry out the following:
- That, Mobile Network Operators should ensure the fields, for inputting MSISDN, in porting request forms are, only 10 digits. In addition, there was a need, for MNOs, to educate and train front-end staff, to ensure the correct donor network and MSISDN, were specified before details were sent to NPC;
- That the MNP Industry Technical Working Group, will discuss and impose, a 45-day port restriction period for, newly, activated SIM cards;
- That, Mobile Network Operators should, henceforth, strictly comply, with the conditions for ‘Emergency Repatriations’ and ‘Return to Block Operator’, in line with Provisions, of the MNP Business Rules, as well as, the consequences for non-compliance;
- That Mobile Network Operators, remove the power, to carry out ‘Emergency Repatriations’ and -‘Return to Block Operator’, from their front end agents, to mitigate the emerging trend of abuse, of laid down processes and procedures;
There were not much porting transactions, during the period under review, the Commission was to carry out, robust awareness campaigns, to enlighten consumers, on the availability of Mobile Number Portability Scheme.
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