BIG STORY
Digital Transformation Series
By Olubunmi Adeniyi
Lagos. April 18, 2013: Second National Operator, Globacom Limited says its network is now 100 per cent ready for subscribers to enjoy number porting feature that allows mobile phone subscribers to retain their unique number when they change service provider.
The company’s announcement comes ahead of next Monday’s planned take-off of Mobile Number Portability in the country following a regulatory directive by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
Mohammed Jameel, Group Chief Operator Officer, Globacom, who dropped the hint says that, “we are the first among all the GSM operators to put in place a functional number portability gateway (NPG) and the first to ensure an all-call query signal transport point (STP) system which are major technical requirements for the successful take-off of mobile number portability on any network.”
Globacom’s internal process is ready to support the number porting scheme as they have also been reviewed and aligned with the process and business rule guidelines released by NCC, Jameel says underscoring the operator’s system readiness, process readiness and operational readiness for the smooth take-off of number portability on its network.
The company says it has completed the procurement and implementation of the network signal routing system (STP) and the porting process or gateway management system (NPG) which is the first to be commissioned in the country and now completely ready for MNP service.
The upgrade and customization of the network systems, the IT systems, the billing systems that will handle mediation and fraud management and the value added systems (VAS) have also been completed, according to Jameel.
He says that the company‘s technical and operational teams have worked to ensure that the network is ready for smooth transition for subscribers who are interested in porting on the Glo network.
“Glo’s operational readiness currently stands at 100 per cent as awareness training for staff, operational/user training and system administration training have already been completed”, he adds.
Jameel discloses that a series of tests on the network upgrade done by the company has been conducted by Huawei and Alcatel Lucent and an enterprise wide dry run to fine-tune the smooth running of the entire system has been done with very positive results.
According to him, the results gave full confirmation that MNP can now run on the company’s systems and infrastructure in a smooth and efficient manner.
