Speaking with journalists recently in Lagos, the chief executive officer and managing director of the company, Segun Ogunsanya assured that with Airtel's robust and expanded 3.75g network coverage, many Nigerian subscribers who had waited so long to join the "best friends network" could finally exploit the window offered by the MNP to realise their wishes.
Ogunsanya who was flanked by director of Regulatory Affairs & Special Projects, Osondu Nwokoro and director of Corporate Communications & CSR, Emeka Oparah further stated that Airtel is excited with the kick-off of MNP, saying it was the first telecoms operator in the country to move for the adoption of MNP during its historic brand launch event, which was held in November, 2010 at the Hilton Hotel in Abuja.
"I am happy to inform you that we have done all our homework and we are fully ready for the MNP go-live date. Airtel has transformed its network, investing over $1.5bn to improve network efficiency and quality. Airtel was the first telecoms operator to complete 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) Trial in Nigeria and also the first service provider to roll out HD (High Definition) Voice in the country.
"It is on record that Airtel has the largest and widest 3.75G coverage in Nigeria and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) recently scored us high in key Quality of Service parameters, saying we met all targets in a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Measurements carried out in December, 2012," he said.
Ogunsanya added that the Telco has transformed the nation's telecommunications landscape with the launch of several groundbreaking tariff and service platforms including 2Good Offers, MAMO (My Airtel My Offer) and a bouquet of exciting data offerings, pointing out that with such an impressive record, he had no doubt that Airtel was the network of choice to Nigerians.
Nwokoro also provided journalists with insight on how the MNP porting process works said Airtel had a history of being customer-centric as evident in the numerous customer service awards it had won. He assured that the company would continue in its stride to excite and delight customers.
According to him, the porting process is fairly simple and can be done in 48 hours as all that a prospective customer who wants to port into the Airtel network needed to do was to visit an Airtel Express Shop, call a dedicated line, complete the port request form and send an sms to 3232 and receive an sms from NPC confirming the success of the porting.
Nwokoro further explained that the porting process does not attract any charges as the only requirement is that the subscriber should do the normal sim registration which entails the provision of a valid national identification card or an international passport or a driver's license.
