NCC Fines Telecom Firms N120.4m

Fri, Sep 4, 2015
By publisher
5 MIN READ

BREAKING NEWS, Business

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The Nigeria Communications Commission fines telecom firms N120.4m for breaking unregistered SIM cards rules

| By Anayo Ezugwu | Sep 14, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT |

MOBILE telecom providers in the country are to pay a total fine of N120.4 million for not complying with the directive to deactivate pre-registered and defective Subscribers Identification Module, SIM, cards on their networks. The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, had warned them in August of the consequences of not carrying out its directives. The affected networks are MTN Nigeria, Globacom, Airtel and Etisalat.

The fines were contained in letters addressed specifically to the operators, dated August 26 and 28, and signed on behalf of Umar Danbatta, NCC executive vice chairman by Efosa Idehen, head, Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement, NCC, and Yetunde Akinloye, head, Legal and Regulatory Services, NCC.

A breakdown of the figure showed that MTN Nigeria’s fine is larger than others. It is to pay N102.2 million, representing 84.8 percent of the total fine. MTN is the largest telecoms company in the country with more than 43 percent market share. It currently has more than 62 million subscribers on its network. The South African telecoms company was followed by Globacom, which was fined N7.4 million. Etisalat and Airtel were also asked to cough out N7 million and N3.8 million, respectively.

In the letters, NCC said the monitoring exercise revealed that the operators were still harbouring pre-registered and defective SIMs on their networks. In the letter addressed to MTN, titled: “Re: Monitoring of Status Compliance with Stakeholders Resolution of August 4, 2015, on Deactivation of Incomplete and Improperly Registered SIM Cards-Notice of Sanction,” NCC claimed that in continuation of its monitoring exercise it placed voice calls to 402 MTN subscribers from among the list of numbers submitted to the telecommunications for deactivation.

“The numbers called are those whose registration were incomplete or invalid as regards facial capture and the responses from those affected MTN subscribers was that MTN has neither through text messages nor any other means invited them to come forward to validate and update their registration,” NCC stated.

The telecoms regulator said in accordance with Regulations 19 (1) and (2) and 20 (1) of the Telephone Subscribers Registration Regulation 2011, “MTN will pay to the commission the total sum of N80.4 million being fine for the contravention.”

It added that the amount should be paid on or before September 9, failure of which shall, in accordance with Paragraph 2, Part B, second schedule of the Nigerian Communications (Enforcement Processes etc.) Regulations 2005, attract N100, 000 per day for as long as it remains unpaid. The second letter also asked MTN to pay another N21.8 million for the discovery of 109 additional pre-registered SIM cards purchased and found to be active on the network.

Also, in the letters addressed to other mobile network operators, MNOs, Globacom, Etisalat and Airtel, NCC recalled that at an industry engagement session on June 11, the commission had directed the MNOs, through its letters dated July 8 and August 4, to mop up all pre-registered SIM cards from the market. The regulator said after the directive expired on August 11, it commenced monitoring of all MNOs to ensure compliance with the instruction.

According to the NCC, despite all warnings and pleadings to the operators, it found 37 pre-registered SIM cards still active on Globacom’s network, resulting in a N7.4 million fine for the indigenous telecoms company. The same pattern of letter was addressed to Etisalat and Airtel, on whose networks 35 and 19 pre-registered SIM cards were found, respectively. Consequently, Etisalat has been mandated to pay N7 million as fine and Airtel, N3.8 million.

NCC, however, warned that while it would continue to monitor and apply appropriate sanctions on the MNOs for all such preregistered SIM cards purchased by the commission, operators risk additional N100, 000 fine per day for as long as the fines remain unpaid.

The commission had asked the operators to deactivate more than 37 million SIM cards from their networks because of improper registrations and after having discovered that about 45 per cent of registered SIM cards on their networks were invalid. As such, NCC had sent 18.6 million numbers to MTN for revalidation, 7.4 million to Airtel, 2.33 million to Glo and 19.46 million to Etisalat.

NCC said: “However, our monitoring showed that MTN had only removed just 1.6 million and put them on ‘receive only’ mode. Airtel had only removed 2.3 million SIMs, Globacom also removed only 3.5 million from the network, but it was also partially done. Etisalat barred only 3.3 million SIMs. The current sluggish stance of the operators to follow the directive could make the operators secure regulatory wrath, as their action is tantamount to be against the interest of the nation in the government’s efforts at enhancing the safety of the citizens.”

The renewed move by the NCC to enthrone sanity in the SIM registration database was consequent upon a meeting between office of the National Security Adviser, NSA, the Department of State Services, DSS, the network operators and the NCC, in August this year. Participants at the meeting took into cognizance crimes committed against members of the public either by kidnappers, terrorists, robbers and threats to lives, using unregistered SIM cards.

With more than N31.1 billion said to have been spent so far on the SIM registration by the network operators in the country, stakeholders and Nigerians have continued to wonder why the exercise continue to face irregularities.

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