Nigerians Want GSM Providers Sanctioned over Arbitrarily Charges

Fri, Mar 18, 2016
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BREAKING NEWS, Business, Featured

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Nigerians are calling on the Nigerian Communications Commission to sanction mobile telecom services providers from charging subscribers arbitrarily charges for unsolicited services such as caller tunes, text messages and also stop nuisance marketing calls from the networks

By Anayo Ezugwu  |  Mar 28, 2016 @ 01:00 GMT  |

MOBILE phone users in Nigeria have one common burden since the advent of mobile telephony in 2001. It is the series of unsolicited text messages mobile telecommunications operators repeatedly send into their phones. The text messages, which always come in as free trials of some of their services are now being used to rip off subscribers. There are also arbitrarily charges for call tunes and incessant unsolicited calls which inconvenience mobile phone users.

Contrary to what the subscribers have been told in some of the text messages, there are really no free days for such service trial because as soon as one subscribes to the so-called free service trial, a message comes immediately thanking the client for subscribing to the service. Thereafter, there would be forced deductions from the credits in the phones for the unsolicited service or services and automatic deductions once a customer recharges his or her line with credit.

Many Nigerians have blamed the telecom operators for the rip off and called on the regulatory agency to take appropriate actions to stop the text messages. One of the consumers who wishes anonymity, shared his experience with Realnews magazine. He said on December 20, 2015, he received a text from Airtel that he has subscribed for the Airtel Job on Phone, whereas he didn’t request for such services. Likewise on December 29, 2015, he received another text saying he has renewed his Job on Phone.

“Job on Phone 1 service has been renewed on your Airtel mobile at N50 for 15 days. Again, on January 13, 2016, I received another text saying, Job on Phone 3 service has been renewed on your Airtel mobile at N10 for 3 days. With this development, I noticed that each time I recharge they will remove N50 for the subscription of this Job on Phone. I then called their customer care and complained, they promised to stop it but up to last month they were still deducting my money without any reason. In a transparent business deal, the client would ordinarily expect to be sent the job vacancies but they didn’t render any service yet they deducted my money,” he said.

William Cole, another mobile phone user, told Realnews that in the past six months he had lost more than N20, 000 to unsolicited messages from Airtel. He said that this development made him not to re-register his phone number despite all the bonuses promised him by Airtel. “Airtel had been stealing my money by deducting it for services I didn’t subscribe for. For example, their automatic data bundle subscription plan. On December 18, 2015, which was the last day I stopped recharging my phone, they deducted N100 from my airtime for data bundle plan for one day. This means I must use the 10megabite for that day and if I fail to use it the money is gone.

“It is like that every day. They force me to use the internet even when I’m not in the mood. Sometimes they will notify me that they will automatically renew the plan and if I don’t want I should send STOP to 141. When I send STOP to 141 a message will come that I have cancelled the automatic bundle plan, but that would not stop them from deducting my money unnecessarily,” he said.

Similarly, Dennis Onuze, MTN Nigeria subscriber, explained to Realnews that he had stopped recharging his MTN line because of unsolicited text messages and unexplainable deductions. “MTN always deduct N50 from my phone for service I didn’t know when they subscribed me to. I had ringing tones I didn’t subscribe. I receive texts of some services I didn’t know how I got involved in it. They deduct my money indiscriminately without any reason,” Onuze said.

This arbitrarily charges for unsolicited messages and caller tunes are what mobile phone users in Nigeria pass through on a daily basis in order to communicate with their families, friends and business partners.  But telecommunications operators in Nigeria, namely MTN, Airtel, Globacom and Etisalat have rejected blames that they are responsible for the increasing menace of unsolicited text messages and illegal credit deductions from customers’ accounts.

The operators accused some unscrupulous foreign data miners of exploring their networks. The operators claimed that the so-called data miners were working in connivance with guerrilla marketers.

However, the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, said consistent with Section 89 of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003 which mandates the commission to monitor all significant matters relating to the performance of all licensed telecoms service providers and publish annual reports at the end of each financial year, it had developed compliance monitoring and enforcement strategies to achieve ethical market conduct and optimal quality of service in the Nigerian telecommunications industry.

The NCC on February 27, mandated telecommunication operators to create awareness on the existence of the ‘Do Not Disturb’ database, which shields subscribers from receiving spam or unsolicited messages and calls. According to the regulatory body, the commission had received various complaints from subscribers regarding unsolicited text messages and nuisance calls from Mobile Network Operators, MNO, in the industry.

Following these complaints, the telecommunication umpire said it had monitored the networks to ensure that MNOs created a DND database for subscribers who do not want to receive unsolicited messages on their lines. “The commission’s compliance checks revealed that most MNOs have set up the DND facility on their networks. However, the awareness of existence of this facility is very low, because the MNOs are reluctant to sensitise their subscribers on the availability of this facility and how to opt into same.

“Further investigations suggest that operators are not actually keen on the DND, as this may affect their revenue stream from Value Added Services, VAS. The commission has, therefore, commenced the process of issuing a directive that MNOs dedicate a short code on their networks. The short code will be used by subscribers to opt-in to the DND database, restricting unsolicited marketing messages, Voice and SMS, on their mobile phones,” it said.

It is not only the NCC that is trying to protect the consumers from being exploited by services providers in the telecommunications sector. The National Assembly is currently working on a bill to end the unsolicited text messages. The bill, which has passed through the second reading in the House of Representatives, will empower aggrieved subscribers to file civil suits against service providers before a High Court, and receive compensation.

It is the general belief that in a free market economy, consumers should be allowed to exercise their power of choice and any trend that endangers the exercise of such powers should be discouraged. Therefore, the NCC should make more efforts to end the issue of unwanted text messages and calls from telecom providers in Nigeria.

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