The
NCC has barred mobile number operators from sending out unsolicited text
messages to subscribers.
The
failure by any of the operators to comply with the new directive, with effect
from July 1, 2016, will attract a fine of N5m, with additional N500,000 per
day, for as long as the contravention persists, according to the commission.
The
document showed that a total of 13 MNOs were issued with the directive. They
include: MTN, Airtel, Smile, Etisalat, Globacom and Visafone.
Others
are Starcomms, Megatech Engineering Limited, Gicell Wireless Limited, Danjay
Telecoms, Gamjitel, Multilinks and Natcom.
It will be
recalled that
the commission had been inundated with complaints from subscribers about the
menace of unsolicited text messages and calls from the MNOS, which were said to
have impacted negatively on consumer quality experience in the telecoms
industry.
However,
with the new law on unsolicited messages, licensees are now mandated by the
Consumer Code of Practice Regulations, 2007, to conduct telemarketing in
accordance with any ‘call’ or ‘do not call’ preferences recorded by the
consumer at the time of entering into a contract for services or after.
The
document stated that the commission, through its monitoring activities,
confirmed that though some MNOs had set up the DND facility on their network,
the awareness by subscribers of the availability of the DND facility on the
MNOs network and how to opt into the facility was “very minimal and
unsatisfactory.”
It
said that the NCC, in line with its regulatory functions of protecting the
interest of consumers as provided in Sections 4(1)(b) and 105(1) of the Nigeria
Communications Act, 2003, and ensuring the development of the Nigerian
communications industry, was of the opinion that the degradation of consumer
quality experience through unsolicited telemarketing should be curtailed.
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