NCC Threatens To Impose Fresh Fine On MTN

MTN in line for fresh fines

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has threatened to impose a fresh fine on MTN which is yet to pay the ₦1.04 trillion fine slammed on it earlier for failing to deactivate 5.1 million unregistered SIM cards. The commission made this known in its ‘2015 3Q compliance monitoring and enforcement report’, saying Airtel and Globacom also risk being sanctioned for defying its directive on automatic migration to Pay-As-You-Go data bundle.

Citing complaints from subscribers on automatic migration of data bundle package to Pay-As-You-Go billing on depletion of their data bundle, NCC warned the three leading telecommunication outfits in the country.

News Agency of Nigeria report continues:

"Consequently and pursuant to section 53(1) of the NCA 2003, the commission on 3rd August 2015 directed all mobile service operators to comply with the data bundle directions,” the report read.

“That where a subscriber’s data bundle account is fully depleted before the due date, service providers should notify the subscriber via SMS, giving information regarding the tariff/billing rate for automatic migration.

“That all service providers should henceforth stop auto-migration of subscriber’s data service to the Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) account upon depletion of the data bundle account, except with the express consent and authorization of the subscriber via SMS.”

The regulatory body said that a follow-up compliance check was carried out which revealed that Etisalat was in compliance with the directives.

It said through SMS, Etisalat notified its subscribers of depletion of their data bundle accounts, before due dates.

The telecoms regulator also said that Etisalat sought the consent of subscribers before automatically migrating them to the Pay-As-You-Go data service.

“Globacom is in compliance with direction no. 1 as subscribers receive SMS detailing tariff rate for auto-migration on depletion of their data bundle,” according to the report.

“However, Globacom failed to obtain express consent from subscribers before migration to PAYG and therefore in violation of direction no. 2.

“MTN is in compliance with direction no.1 but failed to highlight the tariff rate for PAYG billing. In addition, data service is not suspended on depletion of the data bundle account even without an authorization via an SMS from the subscriber.

“Airtel is not in compliance with the above directions.

“Consequent upon the above, the commission has issued a notice of intention to sanction the concerned service providers.”