Nigerian Newsday

The number of mobile subscribers in Nigeria will hit 44 million by end of the year, said the executive vice chairman of the Nigerian Communication Commission, Mr Ernest Ndukwe.

He said this at the opening of a four-day workshop on Numbering and Convergence in Lagos, said the figure would surpass the South Africa figure of 40 million and that Nigeria would continue to roll out new communication services to meet national demands.

Ndukwe said the country presently had seven national long distance communications operators, 13 fixed wireless access network operators, eight interconnect exchange operators two Internet exchange operators and 562 internet service/solution providers.

He said there were 13 unified access network operators while four 3G licences were awarded in March this year, adding that "these expansion calls for a national numbering plan which would impact on the productivity and competitiveness in the communication industry".

According to him "Numbering is a critical component to provide communications services as it impacts on how operators conduct business, how services are rolled out, and how subscribers behave".

He said further that the national numbering plans will encourage fair competition as every operator will have equal rights to the national resource and promote service innovation, which will ultimately generates more revenue.

Ndukwe added that subscribers would be empowered to manage their personal brand" with freedom to change operators, and that operators would grow as the plan would allow for greater return on investment.

"There will be reward for creative marketing, service features, pricing models, and high quality with growth in subscriber numbers and revenue" said the NCC boss.