The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has allocated a total of 382.94 million telephone numbers, to all telecommunications services providers since the inception of digital mobile services in the country in 2001.
This was disclosed in NCC’s national numbering plan (NNP) first quarter released on February 19, 2021.
The NNP is a routine periodic report issued as part of NCC’s mandate to publish and update all telephone numbers allocated to service providers for the benefit of stakeholders.
According to NCC, the purpose of NNP is to set up a uniform numbering scheme and the associated dialling procedures to be used in the network to allow subscribers and operators set up calls.
The telecom operators assigned with national and state licences since 2001 are: 101 Communications, 21st Century Technologies, Airtel, Airworld Technologies, Alpha Technologies, Big Picture, Broadbased Communications and CallMe.
They also include: Cedarview Communications, Cyberspace, 9mobile, FNL Engineering, Glo Mobile, Globacom, GTS InfoTel Nigeria, Inq Digital, Intercellular, Interra Networks, iPNX.
Others are: MTN (formerly Visafone, fixed and mobile lines), MYD Technologies, NATCOM Dev. & Inv., Reston Communication Services, Skyway Technology & Services, Smile, Swift, Spectranet, Telvida International Systems, Tizeti, TNT Global Technologies, Trucall Solutions, Vezeti Services.
The states and cities where these telephone lines were issued include Lagos, Abuja, Abeokuta, Warri, Kaduna, Kano, Port Harcourt, Uyo, Ijebu-Ode, Benin, Asaba, Zaria, Ibadan, Onitsha, Akwa, Aba, Owerri.
Others are: Minna, Maiduguri, Enugu, Calabar, Umuahia, Ilorin, Abakaliki, Agbor, Katsina, Yenagoa, and Lafia.
100 million lines were assigned to Airtel to be used nationally and 50 million numbers were assigned to 9Mobile nationally as well.
For Globacom, NCC allocated 46,000 telephone numbers, while Glo mobile, a subsidiary of Globacom, were given 70 million lines for nationwide use.
MTN (mobile lines) was assigned 123 million telephone numbers for national use, while MTN (formerly Visafone) was given 9.05 million numbers for different states, and MTN (fixed lines) had 25,000 lines.
