Reflection and personal learning

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CHAPTER THREE

SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND METHODOLOGY

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that interest known to his/her network of choice (now the recipient operator). This is done by physically visiting the recipient network with a valid identity card. This method is called recipient-led porting. The subscriber is made to fill a form, giving full personal details, and will be instructed to send the message 'PORT' to a short code 3232, to Number portability Clearing House.

Immediately this is done, the Clearing House immediately sends a message to the donor network, informing it of the plan by a subscriber to port out of its network. Once this is approved by both networks, the recipient operator (or new network provider) provides a new SIM to the subscriber, and the subscriber is expected to replace the old SIM with the new SIM, to commence making and receiving calls after 48hours. This is summarized in the following steps and in figure 3.1 below for clarity.

(a) Subscriber visits any of the outlets of the service provider he/she intends to switch to.

(b) The subscriber completes the necessary forms.

(c) The new operator verifies and forwards request to Number portability clearing house (d) If the request is approved, the subscriber is directed to send an SMS;“PORT” to 3232 (e) After processing, the donor operator is informed that this particular subscriber has ported

out of its network and a new SIM card will be issued to the subscriber still bearing the old number.

(f) The Number Portability clearing House Admin makes this information

available to both the donor and the recipient network and the number is disconnected from the donor network and provisioned in the recipient operator’s network.

(g) The location routing number of the recipient operator is defined against the ported –in subscriber.

(h) New location routing number is relayed and updated by all operators

(i) The subscriber is expected to wait for some time (between 24 – 48hrs) within which he/she gets an SMS to commence using the ported number.

(j) A subscriber is also expected by regulation to stay for a minimum of 90days on the new network before any other migration.

These steps are as shown in figure 3.1 below.

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Figure 3.1 MNP process in Nigeria

Having implemented the MNP, Nigeria has joined the league of other countries as a number porting nation. The scheme is expected to deepen competition among mobile network service providers, improve quality of service, and discourage the use of dual SIM phones among other expectations. Indeed, it challenges GSM service providers to sharpen their survival instincts. For the subscribers MNP has at last conferred on them the status reflected in the popular expression:

“the customer is king”. They are expected to encounter less and less of the shabby treatments and malpractices they have been suffering in the hands of GSM service providers because the scope of

2.REQUEST TO PORT TO B

3. VERIFY THE REQUEST

OPERATOR A (DONOR)

NUMBER PORTABILIT Y CLEARING HOUSE ADMIN (NPCHA)

OPERATOR D

OPERATOR B

(RECIPEIENT )

4. FOWARD REQUEST TO NPCH

1.

SUBSCRIBER FROM OPERATOR A

OPERATOR C

7. NPCHA FIXES THE PORTING SIGNAL AND CONVEYS IT TO DONOR AND RECIPIENT OPERATOR

5. APPROVE OR REJECT.

IF APPROVED, FOWARD REQUEST TO NPCHA (PORT TO 3232)

8. NUMBER IS DISCONNECTED FROM DONOR OPERATOR AND PROVISIONED IN RECIPIENT OPERATOR’S NETWORK

9. LOCATION

ROUTING NUMBER OF RECIPIENT OPERATOR IS DEFINED AGAINST THE MOBILE NUMBER 6. APPROVE OR

REJECT. IF APPROVED,FOR WARD

APPOROVAL TO DONOR

OPERATOR 10. NEW LOCATION

ROUTING NUMBER IS RELAYED & UPDATED BY ALL OPERATORS

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their choice of service provider has been expanded. According to NCC the policy is being implemented in phases beginning with GSM mobile networks. Thus, the networks involved in the present phase of implementation are Airtel, Etisalat, Glo Mobile and MTN.

3.2.1 Existing MNP Call Routing Frameworks

From available literatures it has been established that for porting to be efficient and successful, there are two technical issues that must be streamlined. These issues are (a) the type of database maintained which can be either centralized or distributed; (b) the calls made to the ported number must be re-routed. In the Nigerian context, NCC has already approved Central database system to enable them oversee the operations of the different operators. Then the second technical issue of re-routing of calls which is the actual porting process. This re-routing implies that an incoming call must find its way to the new service provider. Ordinarily the routing information used in routing the call prior to porting would route the call to the old service provider. Call routing is the method used for routing of calls from an originating network to the mobile network associated with a given mobile number whenever a call is made. There are many variations to routing of incoming calls in a ported environment and they are categorized into four and they include:

Onward Routing (OR), Query on Release (QoR),Call dropback and All Call Query (ACQ).These call routing frameworks are analyzed as follows: