Keep your MTN number active while abroad

MTN is the one Nigerian network whose own page we could read, and it publishes the regulator's dormancy rule as a product with a price on it. Keep My Number is what MTN sells to the subscriber who is leaving, and the page is unusually direct about what happens to anyone who does not buy it.

What MTN sells

The Keep My Number page describes the service in one sentence: "Keep My Number(KMN) is a special service from MTN that allows you retain your numbers in the event that you travel out of the country or stay inactive/dormant for more than 180days."

MTN counts that threshold in days. The NCC's prepaid rule counts it in months: six months without a revenue-generating event is where a line may be deactivated. The two are the same stretch of time only in the loose sense. They are not the same count.

Among the benefits the same page lists, the first is the one that matters for a number holding a bank account: "Prevents your MTN number from being disconnected or re-cycled."

What it costs

The prices sit in a table on MTN's page beside the activation codes: 3,500 naira for one year, 5,000 for two years and 7,500 for three. The keywords KMN1, KMN2 and KMN3 go to 36500, and the same three terms are sold over USSD as 3651#, 3652# and 3653#. The activation line reads: "Recharge your account with sufficient airtime. Dial *365# or send an SMS with your preferred keyword to 36500."

Worth comparing against the smaller figures that circulate in third-party guides for this service. We publish the table on MTN's own page, dated by the day we read it, because that is the version a reader can check against the network they are paying.

Who cannot buy it

One line in the FAQ on the same page closes the product to a whole class of customers: "No, MTN Postpaid customers CANNOT subscribe to the MTN Keep My Number service." A postpaid line has to become prepaid before this route exists, which is the same shape as China, where suspend-and-hold is sold to one kind of account and not the other. The Chinese arrangement is on the China page.

When the bundle runs out

The subscription is a rental rather than a switch, and MTN's page does not soften the ending: "In the event that your subscription expires and you do not renew your subscription, your number will be disconnected and re-cycled."

The FAQ on the same page also describes how the purchase is confirmed, and it contains a trap worth knowing about. When activating, a pop-up asks whether the bundle should auto-renew or be bought once, and the page states that "If you do not select a subscription type (i.e. one-off or autorenewal on the pop-up menu), the subscription purchase will NOT be successful." Closing that menu without choosing does not buy the default; it buys nothing.

The request beside it

MTN's product is not the only sentence in the rules that concerns a long absence. The NCC's prepaid section lets a subscriber with proof of a good reason for absence request line parking, and it lists "Parked Numbers" as a revenue-generating event. It does not say the request freezes the twelve-month count, and it states no fee and no procedure. A subscriber choosing between the two is choosing between a priced term on MTN's page and a request whose duration the rules do not give, which is set out on the Nigeria page.

Before you fly

• Price the bundle against your absence: 3,500 naira buys one year of Keep My Number. The regulator's prepaid rule is separate, and it says "may": six months without a revenue-generating event, then another six before the operator may take the number.
• Watch the pop-up at activation and pick auto-renew or one-off deliberately.
• A postpaid line cannot use this product, so the decision has to be made before the number changes account type.
• Keep an alternative contact on file with MTN. The regulator requires fourteen days' notice before a churn, and the operator needs somewhere to send it.