The Association of Telecommunications of Nigeria says its members were not among the companies sanctioned by the Nigerian Communications Commission over call masking

By Anayo Ezugwu

THE Association of Telecommunications of Nigeria, ALTON, has denied that its members were among the companies sanctioned by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, over call masking. Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, ALTON, said no current registered member of the association was sanctioned by the NCC.

Reacting to the sanction by the regulatory agency, Adebayo said his members were responsible corporate citizens who operate according to the laws. “We are delighted that in the report issued by NCC, there is no current registered member of our association that was involved.

“And what it also goes to show is that our members are responsible corporate people who operate according to the laws. They work according to the terms of their licenses, so the assurance we will continue to give is that as responsible association we will continue to comply with the rules of operations,” he said.

Adebayo said ALTON as a responsible corporate organisation and with the amount of investment by its members in the country suggested they had to take rules and regulations guiding their operations seriously.

The ALTON chairman also assured subscribers that operators would continue to provide best services. “As an industry that provides infrastructure for many other sub sector of the economy, we will continue to do our best to contribute to national economic development.

“I am delighted about the report by the Bureau of Statistics on the new Gross Domestic Product, GDP, that the number of sectors playing critical roles in the development of the economy was supported by the telecom sector,” Adebayo said.

The NCC had on Tuesday, February 27, announced a number of sanctions to some operators in the industry for their involvement in masking of international calls. The sanctions ranged from suspension of licences to issuance of warning letters.

Tony Ojobo, director, public affairs, NCC, in a statement made available to Realnews announced that it had begun the second phase of investigation on the involvement of digital mobile operators in masking activities.

“The NCC has recently been inundated with complaints from service providers and consumers regarding the high incidence of call masking, call refilling and SIM boxing. Generally, the practice complained of involves disguising international calls as local calls in order to profit from price differentials between international and local calls.

“Apart from the resultant loss of revenue by service providers, the practice also has some negative security implications. Following a painstaking investigation process, which included collaboration with the Office of the National Security Adviser and the Department of State Services, the commission has imposed a range of sanctions on licensees involved in the fraudulent practice,” he said.

The sanctions include suspension of the interconnect clearing house licence issued to Medallion Communications Limited for a period of 90 days, in the first instance, and issuance of a strong warning to Interconnect Clearinghouse Nigeria Limited.

Others are disconnection of Information Connectivity Solutions Limited and Solid Interconnectivity Services Limited from all networks until they regularise their operations, and issuance of letters to Exchange Telecoms Limited, NiconnX Limited and Breeze Micro Limited, cautioning them against engaging in the fraudulent practice.

The commission also barred over 750,000 numbers assigned to several Private Network Links and Local Exchange Operator licensees. The number ranges were found to have been utilised for the masking activity.

Ojobo said the sanctioned entities were found to be directly and indirectly complicit in several infractions, including covertly allowing organisations with expired licences to transit calls and failure to undertake due diligence on parties seeking to interconnect.

Other infractions include deliberately turning a blind eye to masking infractions by interconnect partners and using a licence issued to other organisation to bring in and terminate international calls, which were masked as local calls to other operators.

Regarding the barring of numbers, Ojobo said over 750,000 individual numbers across the nation, made up of about 31 number ranges had been barred.

The licensees whose numbers were barred are Vezeti Communications Services Limited, Voix Networks Limited, Mobitel Limited, Peace Global Satellite Communications Limited, ABG Communications Limited and Vodacom Business Africa (Nigeria) Limited.

Others are Swift Telephone Networks Limited, QVODA Telecoms Limited, Wireless Telecoms Limited and Emcatel Networks Limited.

Masking involves concealing international calls coming into a country and presenting them as local in order to make profits from the difference in prices between local and international calls.

– Mar. 2, 2018 @ 18:07 GMT |