The NCC’s director of public affairs, Reuben Muoka, said in a statement that the directive to network providers is consistent with the commission’s consumer-centric approach to telecoms regulation in the country.
Muoka also stated that the NCC has set a May 17, 2023 deadline for all mobile communications providers to fully migrate from the various shortcodes to the harmonised ones, explaining that the process aims to achieve uniformity in shortcodes across all networks.
He went on to say that the migration entails making sure that the codes for checking airtime balance, borrowing services, and credit recharge, among other things, are the same regardless of which network a mobile service consumer uses.
His words:
“With the new codes, the telecom consumers using the over 226 million active mobile lines in the country, can now use the same codes to access services across the networks.”
Below is a list of the harmonised shortcodes for telecom mobile network consumers:
1. Call Centre/Help Desk on all mobile networks: 300
2. Voice Mail Deposit – 301
3. Voice Mail Retrieval – 302
4. Borrow Services – 303
5. STOP Services – 305
6. Check Balance – 310
7. Credit Recharge – 311
8. Data Plan across networks – 312
9. Share Services – 321
10. Data Plan Balance – 323
11. Verification of Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Registration/NIN-SIM Linkage – 996
12. Do-Not-Disturb (DND) unsolicited messaging complaint management – 2442
13. Porting Services or Mobile Number Portability -3232
According to the NCC, the old and new shortcodes will run concurrently until the deadline for the final implementation of the harmonised ones.
The commission said:
“The period between now and May 17, 2023, is provided by the NCC to enable telecom consumers to familiarise themselves with the new codes for various services.
“In addition, the new policy will provide an opportunity for licensees in the Value-Added Services (VAS) segment of the telecoms sector to be able to use freed-up/old codes for other services, as well as enhance cohesive regulatory framework in keeping with world-class practices.”