MTN, Airtel Lead in Number Porting as Other Operators Record Low Porting Figures
Emma Okonji
The statistics released late last year by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has revealed that MTN and Airtel maintained leading positions in the number of telecoms subscribers that willingly left their original service provider’s network to join other networks in search of better service quality.
While MTN topped the list with 3,624 subscribers that ported from other networks to join its network as at October 2024, also known as inward porting, Airtel followed with 1,747 subscribers that migrated to its network as at October 2024.
Globacom had 451 subscribers that ported to its network within the same period, and 9mobile had the least porting subscribers of 25 within the same period, bringing the total number of inward porting across all networks to 5,847 as at October 2024.
The statistics explained that the total number of inward porting across all networks in January 2024 was 3,154, and in February, the figure rose to 3,944, before dropping to 1,911 in March 2024. The total porting figure however increased again to 3,669 in April 2024, with a further increase to 4,657 in May 2024, and dropped again to 3,772 in June 2024. As at July 2024, the total number of inward porting across all networks rose high to reach 6,361, with a further increase to 6,513 and 7,886 in August and September 2024 respectively. Although September was the peak period, the total number of inward porting across all networks however dropped in October 2024 to 5,847.
From the statistics, MTN alone had a total of 2,270 inward porting in January 2024, which increased to 2,989 in February 2024, before sliding to 1,296 in March 2024. MTN’s inward porting however increased to 2,482 in April 2024, with a further increase to 3,379 in May 2024. The figure dropped again in June 2024 to 2,655, but increased to 4,238 in July 2024, with another drop in figure to 3,617 in August 2024. MTN’s inward porting increased again September 2024 to 4,987, before dropping to 3,624 in October 2024.
Airtel alone had a total of 541 inward porting in January 2024, which increased to 682 in February 2024, before dropping to 343 in March 2024. Airtel’s inward porting figure increased again to 784 in April 2024, but dropped again in May and June 2024 to 766 and 698 respectively. The Airtel’s inward porting figure re-bounced in July to reach 1,629, with a further increase in August 2024 to 2,287, before sliding a little in September 2024 to 2,205, with a further slide in October 2024 to 1,747. Number porting is the movement of subscribers’ telephone number from its original network to a new network in search of better service quality, while still retaining the same telephone number on the new network. While inward porting can be described as the movement of telephone numbers from another network into a new network, outward porting is the movement of telephone numbers from its original network, into another network. Subscribers are allowed to move telephone numbers from one network to another in search of better service quality, while still retaining the original telephone number on the new network, irrespective of the change in service provider’s network. The porting low however stipulates that a subscriber must remain on the new network it ported to, for a period of 90 days before another porting process could be initiated.
