Protecting the Rights of Telecoms Consumers

The Nigerian Communications Commission, has continued to assert its consumer-centric regulatory authority on telecoms operators, insisting that telecoms consumers’ rights must be upheld in the midst of avalanche of promos, tariffs and bonuses introduced by the operators, that seem to be fast depleting consumers’ data and airtime in a confused manner, writes Emma Okonji

As the year is gradually winding down, telecoms operators across networks have continued to woo their subscribers with different categories of promos, tariffs and bonuses that appear enticing at the surface level, but equally come with some terms and conditions that are not made clear to the subscribers.

Often times, subscribers jump at the promos and tariffs without taking time to study the terms and conditions of such promos and tariffs, only to realise at the middle of a particular promo or tariff, that their accumulated data and airtime, which they thought could have lasted for a longer period of browsing hours or talk hours, suddenly begin to deplete fast in a manner that puts them in a confused state.

Known for its consumer-centricity, and in order to address consumer pain-point in the area of tariffs, promos and bonuses, NCC has called for a simplified tariff system across networks and has equally directed all telecoms operators to submit their restructured tariff plan to the NCC on a weekly basis and to publish same to all their subscribers before November 30,2024.

Consumers’ Pain Points

Consumers’ pain points vary from network to network, based on the different operators’ tariff plans and promos offered to their subscribers.

In order to address the pain points, NCC conducted a survey on consumers’ needs and value as they relate to tariffs and promos, which showed that consumers value quality of service to promos and tariff plans that do not add value to them.

According to the survey report, most telecoms subscribers do not have clear understanding of the various tariff plans and promos being offered to them by their operators, because at the end of the day, it turns out that most of the promos and tariffs are the sources from where telecoms consumers’ pain points emanate from, giving them room to become suspicious of their telecoms service providers.

The ultimate goal of the NCC’s survey was to ensure that telecoms consumers, irrespective of their networks, attain certain level of satisfaction, and to also meet their expectations with decent experiences across networks, but the survey report revealed the contrary. NCC realised that there were some elements of promos that were being converted and translated into tariffs, unknown to the consumers. In some cases, operators apply different effective tariffs to bonus accounts, resulting in different tariffs for the main account and bonus account, and the information is not communicated to consumers, which often times, leads to uninformed decisions on the part of telecoms consumers.

NCC is of the view that telecoms consumers have the right to know the full details of whatever service they subscribed to, and the expected value they are supposed to get from such subscriptions.

NCC expects that all current tariffs featuring bonuses or promotional elements should be classified strictly as promotions and thus should be submitted to the Consumer Affairs Bureau of the NCC for quality of service evaluation.      

Midnight Calls

In the past, free midnight calls were used as baits to lure telecoms consumers into a tariff plan that remain ambiguous to many. The operators assured telecoms consumers that the midnight call tariff plan would reduce their cost of talk time and many subscribers believed and subscribed to the plan, only to discover that they were not getting value for the midnight calls, because it resulted to network jam as huge numbers of subscribers were awake all nights, just to make free midnight calls at the same time, a development that made the NCC to compel operators to scrap midnight calls across all networks.

Consumers that welcomed the scrapping of midnight calls, said what was important to them was the value they were supposed to get, and not the free talk time that resulted in network jam and made rubbish of the entire free midnight calls.

Unrealistic Bonuses

It has also been discovered that the bonuses offered by telecoms operators, have been unrealistic to a large extent.  Some operators will offer a recharge data bonus of N5,000, but will apply high tariff rate on such bonuses, unknown to the telecoms consumers, that will suddenly discover that their data is fast depleting than usual.

Some of the affected subscribers even accused the operators of stealing their data because it depletes at alarming rate, due to the high tariff rate that has been attached to it, unknown to the consumer.  The same applies to bonus voice calls. While subscribers will be expecting that they would be charged the normal rate of N20 per minute call, they would be surprised that their calculation of three hours talk time, based on the bonus given them, would only last for less than an hour and they would be wondering what happened to their bonus airtime, unknown to them that bonus airtime comes with higher tariff rate that was not disclosed to them as at the time the bonus airtime was given to them.

NCC is of the view that a situation where bonuses attract higher tariff rate than the normal call airtime from the main account, should be discouraged. 

For the purpose of transparency, NCC has also said that every airtime in both the main account and the bonus account should have equal tariff rate that must deplete at the same rate for voice and data, adding that consumers should have real value for their data subscription and voice airtime.

NCC’s Directive

In order to protect telecoms consumers from unhealthy promos, bonuses and tariffs, NCC has issued a directive to telecommunications operators to simplify their tariff plans, bundles, and promotional activities.

The directive aims to provide clear, easy-to-understand, and accurate information about the cost of voice, short messaging service (SMS) and data services to subscribers.

The directive, titled, “Guidance on the Simplification of Tariffs in the Nigerian Communications Sector,” was issued on July 29, 2024, which mandates Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to publish a comprehensive table showing the features of their tariff plans and bundle offers.

According to the directive, the table should contain all necessary information for subscribers to make informed decisions, including details on add-ons, their prices, how consumers can opt-in or out, terms and conditions for renewal, and rollover policies.

The guideline is the outcome of consultations with industry stakeholders, including MNOs and Consumer Focus Groups, and extensive data analysis on consumer preferences and expectations.

The objectives of the simplification guidelines are to reduce the complexity of tariff plans and bundles, ensure transparency and fairness of promotional elements of tariff plans, protect consumers’ interests by providing clear and understandable tariff information so that they make informed decisions, and promote fair competition among licensees by standardising tariff structures.

Service providers are also required to display all relevant information about their tariffs, such as the name of the plan, price, validity period, price-per-second for on or off-network and international calls, expected data speeds, and fair usage policies.

“Operators can maintain existing bonus-led tariff plans till 31st December 2024, within which period operators are expected to educate and migrate all subscribers to the simplified tariff plans,” the directive further stated.

The guidelines further mandate that MNOs must communicate tariffs to subscribers in clear language and a user-friendly format, with full disclosure of a subscriber’s tariff plan via Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD).

“Operators must offer stand-alone data bundles at fair prices to avoid tying consumers with products they do not need, while bonuses on promotions must be stated in actual value,” the NCC directive added.

NCC also emphasised that while complying with the guidelines, operators must also meet the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) standards set out in the Quality of Service (QoS) Regulations.