NCC to Impose N5m Fine on Telcos for Breach of Unsolicited SMS Directives

• Danbatta: Only 1.8% of Nigerians have activated the do-not-disturb option

Dele Ogbodo in Abuja

The Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umaru Danbatta, tuesday, said the commission is at the verge of imposing a N5 million fine on telecommunications companies which breach its regulation on the Do-Not-Disturb (DND) option for subscribers regarding unsolicited text message.

While addressing the journalists last week in Abuja, the Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, averred that the quality of service and the deluge of unsolicited text message rendered by Mobile Nework Operators (MNOs), have reached an alarming level, adding that this prompted him to read the riot to the service providers in 2016.

Danbatta, while answering questions at the side line of a meeting with members of the academia on the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) study group in Abuja, said NCC would take drastic action against MNOs with a fine of N5 million per breach of the DND code option for subscribers.
NCC, he said, was not happy with the unsolicited text message problem, because the consumers continue to be at the receiving end from unsolicited text message sent by mobile network operators, adding that this will be drastically addressed by the commission.

He said: “The commission will ensure the implementation of these two items by providing a toll free number so that NCC will receive complaints from the consumers on the quality of service, though the level of resolutions of issues associated with quality of service has been reasonable.
“NCC recently introduced a regulation of the DND directive which compels MNOs not to send unsolicited text messages to subscribers or consumers. We are at the stage of imposing this direction, meaning that any breach of this direction will attract a fine of N5 million.”

According to the EVC, NCC will henceforth ensures that credit deducted from subscribers on unsolicited text message is refunded back besides invoking the N5 million fine on the operator.
However, he admitted that the fine would come as a measure of last resort, stressing that this is to ensure total compliance to safe guard the consumers from being exploited by telecom operators.
He said: “We are now at the stage of imposing this direction as I speak to you.The DND option that enables the consumers to opt out of the process of receiving unsolicited text message. The directive empowers the consumers to tell the operator to stop sending him/her unsolicited text message.

He said NCC has designated 2017 to empower subscribers on their rights, adding: “The directive is very clear to the operators but unfortunately the level of activation by the consumers is abysmally low as only one per cent of 180 million people have activated the DND option.
“That means only 1.8 million Nigerians really understand the direction on how to activate the DND directive.

“We are not happy about it because we feel the consumers continue to be at the receiving end from unsolicited text messages sent by mobile network operators and we intend to address this drastically.”

He said the commission would improve on its education and sensitisation of consumers to appreciate the DND, adding that it targets 50 per cent of consumers at the end of the campaign drive.

The EVC urged the academia and research institutes in the telecom space to come up with solutions to the myriads of problems confronting the quality of service, congestion control and channels controls in the sector.

Danbatta said: “All the models that we came up with in the course of research could be put to use even if it is on pilot basis in order to find solutions to intractable problems of quality of service.

“So this engagement is quite apt, especially in view of the fact that we intend to make 2017 the year of the consumer. We intend to make sure that most of the directions issued out that are not understood by the consumers will be addressed.”

He said the commission would listen to the consumer, educate them on issues that are too technical to comprehend: “We intend to come down to the level of the consumers in order to get him to buy into the various regulations that are consumer centric and so in the process of trying to accomplish this objective, I think the university system has important role to play.” the EVC said.

He stressed further: “How do we simplify complex regulatory processes to the level that ordinary people can understand them in a manner that we convey this to the public, how do we simplify the technical issues that are associated with these regulations so that these can be understood by the people we have undertake in our 8 point agenda.

“How do we use broken-English for instance for the consumers in far locations to understand how to activate the DND option, that will empower the consumer to entertain any text message that he/she wants in order to opt out of any messages that he or she is not interested.

“How do we translate the various options in a way and manner that ordinary consumer will be able to understand and therefore activate whatever option of the DND option that we have diligently came up with as only about 1.8 million Nigerians have activated now going by the statistics of NCC for a population of 180 million which is about 1.8 percent.

In her remarks, a lecturer at the Federal University of Minna, Prof. Elizabeth Onwuka, said the the interaction is expected to produce a better synergy between the academia and industry, adding: “The university produces the manpower required by the industry for the benefit of the users and consumers.

“NCC’s partnering the academia is going to yield a lot of benefits because this working together is symbiotic and it is something that we cannot do without because the academia trains the manpower that the industry works with.

“The market changes but the industry needs of the people and so when the industry and the academia work together, the academia keys into these changes and they train the manpower that would adapt to the society.