Nigerian Communications Commission has given approval to MTN Nigeria and 9Mobile to carry out trial on the workability of embedded Subscriber Identification Modules service in Nigeria.
This was disclosed in a statement on Monday by Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, NCC’s Director of Public Affairs.
The trial, approved to run for a period of one year, NCC said would involve testing 5,000 e-SIMs by the two mobile network operators, subject to compliance with a number of regulatory conditions.
“These conditions include full compliance by the MNOs with the Registration of Telecoms Subscribers Regulations 2011; the Mobile Number Portability Regulations and Business Rules 2015; Guidelines on SIM Replacement 2017; and non-degradation of the quality of service experience by users of e-SIMs,” the commission stated.
According to NCC, an e-SIM is a small chip that is embedded on a mobile phone or smart devices, designed for convenience, flexibility and simplicity, and that the e-SIM makes it easier for subscribers to choose a pre-paid plan provider and switch between network operators.
The information on the e-SIM is rewritable by operators and the identification information can be updated over time.
Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, was reported to have said that the primary objective of the e-SIM trial was to assess the technical performance of the e-SIM on telecoms service providers’ network towards eventual rollout, if satisfactory.
Danbatta explained that the e-SIMs would eliminate the need for physical SIM card slots on mobile devices in the near future, adding that the trial is in line with the commission’s forward-looking regulatory approach to ensure Nigeria’s telecoms ecosystem is in tandem with global best practices.
