NCC Gives One Year To Deactivate Dormant Phone Lines

THE Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) may have updated its Telecom Identity Risk Management Policy (TIRMP), allowing a window of one year for an inactive phone line to be reassigned to a new subscriber.
The TIRMP platform is NCC’s way of developing a cross-sector platform to collect and share data on churned (recycled) phone numbers and numbers that have been flagged as having been used for fraudulent activities, as reported by other sector regulators.
A reliable source at the Commission told Vanguard that the platform would help prevent the misuse of numbers when they change hands, as information on this platform would be made available to relevant stakeholders across various sectors.
Its gathered that NCC plans to launch the updated policy framework by the 4th quarter of this year in alignment with its strategic vision plan, which aims not only to meet the quality-of-service expectations of telecom consumers, but also address their quality of experience, involving every touchpoint they encountered within the telecommunications ecosystem, from onboarding processes, such as SIM registration, to offboarding, which is when they choose to leave a network.
The new guidelines means that when a phone number has not carried out any revenue-generating event, outgoing or incoming calls or SMS, charged USSD sessions, data use or any activity on the line that generates income for the operator for over 180 days, the MSISDN is deemed inactive.
If this inactivity continues for another 180 days, that is a total of 360 days, the line becomes eligible for churning and recycling.
“The QoS Regulation and Business Rules 2024 provides that after 365 days without any revenue generating event carried out on a line, it can be churned by the operator,” the source said.
It means that the Mobile Network Operators (MNO) who leased these lines from the NCC are free to reassign them by putting them back into the market.
According to the source: “Numbering resources, such as telephone numbers and short codes, are the backbone of modern telecommunications. They are governed globally by the International
“The International elecommunication Union (ITU), under Recommendation E.164, ensures efficiency and equitable access to numbers across borders.’’
The NCC stated that numbering resources were inherently scarce because each number must conform to a fixed length and format, yielding only a finite set of valid combinations.
Information on its website states: “In Nigeria, the NCC, mandated by the Nigerian Communications Act 2003, manages and allocates these critical resources on behalf of the Federal Government.
“The NCC assigns number ranges to licensed operators and services (mobile, fixed and special) in a manner that promotes fair competition, protects consumers, fosters innovation and aligns with ITU standards and global best practices.
“The recycling of lines presents challenges, particularly when the previous owners of reassigned numbers still have those numbers linked to services they used before the numbers were recycled. It presents issues of security and integrity of phone number ownership.”
The new policy would reduce fraud risks and improve digital and financial services by enabling service providers to proactively detect and act, particularly to high-risk numbers, while updating their customer details where applicable.
“The NCC will host the platform and establish its regulatory and operational framework. We are currently working with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), security agencies and other key stakeholders, with a beta solution already being tested,” the source added.