Why Gov’t should allow us to keep our Mobile Numbers and Switch Providers

Mr Iddrisu made the statement in response to a question Atta Akyea, MP for Abuakwa South, posed regarding the poor network quality of some of the mobile phone service providers and the need to empower the consumer to migrate to other networks and yet keep their numbers.

Mr Akyea expressed worry over the fact that the NCA, which was the regulator, seemed unconcerned about the interest of the consumer and was rather in the business of granting licences to the network operators to expand their subscriber base on their shoddy networks.

Dr Matthew Prempeh, NPP Manhyia, also mentioned the need to bring MNP on board to enable the consumer to punish poor network quality by migrating.

As at January 2009, there were 11,962,224 active mobile phone subscriptions in Ghana, for a country with a population of some 23 million. This compares with fixed line subscriptions which stood at 140,676.

You may be forgiven to think that Ghana has a far greater telecoms density than the global average. Yet, what the figures don’t reveal is who the 12 million subscribers are. They are, in fact, multiple subscribers, with one person commonly having three mobile phones from three different service providers.

Why this case? Bad services such as drop calls are the order of the day, especially with the major providers. However, customers feel they can only go around this by incurring the extra cost of having an extra SIM card from another service provider.

In spite of the numerous complaints against MTN, for example, the nation’s biggest network provider with 55% market share, attracted 1,053,178 new subscribers within the six month period from June 2008 to January 2009, representing some 19% growth. This can be attributed to two main things: huge advertising budget and number recognition – 024.

While it is by no means not the only shoddy service provider on the market, MTN sits comfortably because of the hold it has on the market and not because it necessarily provides competitive quality products. We believe to deny customers the freedom of mobile number portability is to stop the telecoms competition in Ghana from growing in quality.

This does not mean that the like of MTN and Tigo will certainly lose out under an MNP regime. What that freedom of choice to the individual customer will do is to force companies like MTN and Tigo to earn customer loyalty.

As at now, several business people, especially those with post-paid contracts cannot abandon their providers even if they are not happy with them because of losing business contacts.
We cannot boast of a competitive mobile telephony environment if we are reluctant to allow a policy that will truly make the market free and competitive. As it is now if you spot a cheaper deal in another network and want to swap you have no choice but to either abandon your existing number or take on the extra financial burden of acquiring another number and handset. It is expensive to run and cumbersome to carry.

The current arrangement is stopping newcomers from getting a foothold in the telecoms industry. Ultimately this hurts the consumer as it bastardises free and fair competition.
We see nothing odd, however, about the operator with over half of the market resisting the introduction of MNP. What, however, makes us uneasy is the kind of influence we hear or fear that company may have over the governing party.

We will still urge the NCA and the Communications Ministry to go ahead and put the interest of millions of Ghanaians above the greater lobbying clout or financial muscle of a multinational company or two.
Already, Ghana is nearly a decade behind in this and there is no technical reason for Haruna Iddrisu to renege on his promise to Ghana’s Parliament to introduce MNP.

Also, we are aware of moves to even make it difficult for the transfer to take place once MNP becomes operational. They may be attempts to make it costly and troublesome to migrate from one network to another.

It is important to ensure that consumers are able to select a new mobile provider, purchase a new SIM card and receive calls using their old number as quickly as possible. In Australia it takes only 2 hours to transfer your number from one network provider to the other. In Ireland it takes much less – just 20 minutes.

Even in the UK, where the likes of T-Mobile and Vodafone have ensured that it takes between 5-7 days to transfer, the regulator, Ofcom, has moved against that. It proposed in 2007 that mobile phone users transferring to an alternative supplier should be able to have their old numbers up and running on the new network within two hours. This is set to come into force by September 2009.
We need MNP this year, and our telecoms watchdog here in Ghana has an extra duty to ensure that there is no reason for mobile phone providers to be discouraged from offering number portability to customers once MNP kicks in. We are all watching.

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