Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has issued new regulatory guidelines on national roaming services aimed at encouraging national roaming between roaming providers and roaming seekers in the country.
This simply means NCC has introduced a better deal for mobile telephone users in the country to solve the problem of poor network coverage by service providers in some areas.
The new national roaming guidelines will help a customer of service provider A who moves to a location within the country where only the network of service provider B is available to automatically connect to the available service provider.
Hitherto, only those that travel out of the country have been benefitting from international roaming service, which allows them to make and receive calls on foreign networks through their sim cards.
Under the guidelines, NCC said;
Duly authorised service providers shall request and negotiate National Roaming Agreements with each other on bi-lateral and non-discriminatory terms and the regulator has fixed the duration of any national roaming agreement between service providers at three years, renewable for another three years.
The commission stated that the exercise is in line with the powers conferred upon it by Section 70 of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003.
It further explained that the guidelines are intended to give effect to the provisions of licences which permit the licensees to enter into agreements for the purpose of providing National Roaming Services in Nigeria, subject to the prior approval of the Commission.
The guidelines according to the commission, shall apply to only the holders of licenses validly issued by the Commission which contain condition that makes the holder eligible to enter into a National Roaming Agreement (NRA).
On the scopes of the guidelines, the commission said that the national roaming services shall be provided within the geographical boundaries of Nigeria.
On the legal provisions, it insisted that the procedure for national roaming entails that dully authorised service providers shall request and negotiate NRA with each other on bi-lateral and non-discriminatory terms.
The statement further stated that;
A Roaming Seeker requesting for National Roaming services shall forward a duly completed Roaming Request Form A contained under Schedule 1 of the guidelines to the Roaming Provider.
Additionally, NCC stated that;
A Roaming Provider shall notify the Roaming Seeker of its approval or rejection of the Roaming Request in line with the procedure stated under Sub-paragraph (5) and (6) below.
While subsection (4) required that where the Roaming Seeker receives no response from the Roaming Provider within 15 days of its request, the Roaming Seeker shall immediately notify the Commission in writing, and the Commission shall take necessary steps to ensure the Roaming Provider responds to the Roaming Request.
Considerations for National Roaming Agreements
– The charges, terms and conditions for National Roaming services shall be through bilateral negotiations and in line with the provisions of these Guidelines.
– NRA shall take into consideration legal aspects of authentication, authorisation and billing of the Visiting or Roaming Subscriber so as not to compromise minimal safety standards such as location update procedures, financial security or warranty procedures in line with GSMA reference documents on roaming services as applicable to National Roaming.
– In addition to these guidelines, the following existing regulations and guidelines shall be taken into consideration in drafting NRA;
a) Quality of Service Regulations;
(b) Guidelines on Collocation and Infrastructure Sharing;
(c) Spectrum Trading Guidelines;
(d) Mobile Number Portability Business Rules & Port Order Processes; and
(e) Any other regulations or guidelines published by the Commission from time to
time that have provisions relating to or impacting on national roaming.
– Multiple National Roaming Agreements can be signed with different operators in the same or different clusters.
– Notwithstanding the above, the allowable number of Roaming partners on a Visited Network shall be determined by capacity and clusters.
– National Roaming services shall be provided under non-discriminatory terms, conditions and of a quality no less favourable than that provided by the Roaming Provider for its services or for services by its subsidiaries and other affiliates.
– Meeting the minimum network roll-out obligation as spelt out in a Service Provider’s Licence Condition is a pre-condition for entering into a National Roaming Agreement.
NCC pointed out that;
Where the roaming seeker receives no response from the roaming provider within 15 days of its request, the roaming seeker shall immediately notify the commission in writing, and the commission shall take necessary steps to ensure the roaming provider responds to the roaming request.
The guidelines provided some other safety nets to forestall undue corporate bully and arm-twisting among the service providers.
These are that:
Parties shall thereafter enter into a Non-Disclosure Agreement and commence negotiations of the terms of the National Roaming Agreement.
Parties shall conclude negotiations on the terms of the National Roaming Agreement and execute same within 60 days from receipt of the Roaming Request.
Parties shall ensure that the National Roaming Agreement is submitted to the Commission for review and approval, prior to registration, within 14 days of execution by parties.
It added;
If within 15 days from the date of submission the Commission does not act on the National Roaming Agreement, such shall be deemed approved and registered.
The release of the guidelines followed a successful trial carried out last year. As part of preparations to launch into the national roaming era, NCC had last year approved a trial of the system for two mobile network operators, MTN and 9mobile.
With the approval, the two operators configured their networks for test and simulation for customer experience.
The trial approval, according to the NCC, covered a few local governments, designated as the National Roaming geographic area in Ondo State.
Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) and CEO of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said the primary objective of the National Roaming Service trial was to encourage network resource sharing among operators.
He said this would lead to operational expenditure (OPEX) optimisation and capital expenditure (CAPEX) efficiencies leading to freeing up of resources to expand mobile network coverage to unserved and underserved communities across the country, which will lead to improved Quality of Service (QoS) delivery to subscribers.
