Subscribers who apply to port their numbers would be required to swap their SIM cards from the old (donor) mobile service provider with the SIM cards from the new (recipient) mobile service provider, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said in its draft Mobile Number Portability Regulations 2013.

According to the draft, posted on the commission's website, comments are invited from the public and all interested stakeholders on the draft regulations which should reach the commission on or before March 4, 2013.

The notice explained that the porting process will be initiated by a customer request with a physical visit to a recipient operator via one of its points of sale such as high street store, corporate sales team, or authorised dealer.

NCC also disclosed that only real-time porting of numbers would be allowed and deferred or delayed porting of numbers will not be permitted under the porting regime.

However, the recipient operator is required to inform the customer of the customer's obligations to request porting and the implications of porting their number, as defined and described by the centrally agreed Mobile Number Portability (MNP) code of conduct.

"If it is a post-paid customer, then outstanding contract terms will be claimed by the donor. In the case of a pre-paid customer any outstanding credit will be forfeited on a 'use or lose it' basis.

"The recipient operator should inform the customer of the industry agreed port activation lead times and agree with them the actual porting time and date applicable to their particular order type (simple or complex/ multiple). Since MNP in Nigeria is driven by real-time porting of numbers, deferred porting where a porting date is pre-set for a future date is not permitted by the MNP process or central order handling system," NCC said.

As part of the standard explanation of its service terms and conditions, the recipient operator must ensure that the customer is aware that once a porting transaction has been authorised by the customer sending the validation SMS to the specified MNP number, the porting request cannot be cancelled and must progress to completion.

The commission also noted that it is illegal for the donor operator to contact the customer to seek any further information or to seek to 'retain' the customer during the porting process.

The recipient operator needs to be satisfied that the person requesting the port of a number or numbers is authorised to do so (by means of verifying and recording the person's officially validated proof of photo identity). In addition to its own 'business as usual' checks for credit worthiness, the recipient operator needs to take whatever steps it deems necessary to ensure the request to port a number or numbers is not malicious.

NCC also explained that pre-registration with the subscriber information database of pre-paid and post-paid customers is a mandatory requirement for eligibility to port as well as the customer providing an approved proof of identity.

"An accepted officially validated proof of identity with the customer's photograph will be acceptable; examples include passport, driving licence, and school ID. The recipient operator will confirm with the customer whether the number has been registered on the subscriber information database at the time the porting application form is completed," the regulator said.