Explainer: NCC says 383m is total phone lines allocated since 2001

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) would like to draw the attention of the general public to a news story in a national daily which wrongly interpreted an update report on National Numbering Plan, posted by the Commission on its official website.

Specifically, the report published by the media outfit with the headline: “NCC allocates 383 million new telephone numbers to operators,” purported that the Commission allocated 383 million new telephone lines to telecoms service providers in the first quarter of 2021 alone.

For the avoidance of doubt, the update report posted on the Commission’s website on Friday 19th, February, 2021, under the heading: National Numbering Plan (2021 Q1), was the Total Number of Telephone Numbers allocated to all the telecommunications services providers since the inception of digital mobile services in the country in 2001.

The update report is, therefore, by no means, either an indication of new allocation or new activation of telephone numbers in Q1 2021, as wrongly interpreted by the media outfit.

Rather, the report on the Commission’s website titled: ‘National Numbering Plan (2021 Q1)’ is a routine periodic report issued as part of the Commission’s regulatory mandate to publish and update all telephone numbers allocated to service providers for the benefit of stakeholders.

The purpose of the National Numbering Plan in the telecommunications sector is to set up a uniform numbering scheme and the associated dialing procedures to be used in the networks to allow the subscribers and operators to set up calls.

The general public and all our stakeholders are advised to disregard the said report in the national daily and be guided accordingly.

While we appreciate the good intention of our media stakeholders in terms of timely reportage of NCC and its regulatory activities, we, however, encourage them to always fact-check their stories with the Commission for accurate reporting.

We also use this opportunity to remind our esteemed media stakeholders that the Commission runs an open-house system. We encourage them to always feel free to contact the Commission for necessary clarification on NCC’s regulatory activities and reports published on its website before going to press.

Dr. Ike Adinde

Director, Public Affairs