Two mobile telecoms companies operating in Nigeria, MTN and 9mobile are planning to enter into a network-sharing arrangement. This means that in areas where there is no network for any one of the companies, customers would easily move onto the other’s network without any obvious disruption of service.
This announcement was made by 9Mobile CEO Alan Sinfield in an interview with The Africa Report recently.
According to him, “a pilot-free roaming scheme in Ondo State allowing customers of each company to switch to the network of the other where its own has no coverage has run smoothly.”
He added that the pilot was the first of its kind and the facility would be provided at no extra charge and the companies will seek Nigerian regulatory permission for a full roaming agreement to let customers share their networks.
As at December 2020, 9mobile had 12.98m subscribers while MTN had 80.76m subscribers. So it is obvious that 9mobile subscribers stand to gain more from this arrangement.
According to The Africa report, “Free national and international roaming provision has been gaining ground in Africa. In 2014, East African Community countries agreed to create a single network area for five national economies, with mobile roaming charges eliminated. The move led to an immediate surge in traffic: according to the World Bank, inbound roaming calls to Kenya from Rwanda increased by over 950% when the change was introduced.”
