DND empowers telecom consumers to block or allow VAS – NCC

Telecommunications service consumers in the country are empowered through the Do Not Disturb (DND) 2442 facility to choose whether to allow or block access to Value Added Service (VAS) on a full or partial basis, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said. The NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman, Prof Umar Garba Danbatta, who disclosed this at the 82nd Telecom Consumer Parliament in Abuja, also said the Commission had deemed it necessary to find a balance between the VAS’ benefits and mitigating the inconvenience they posed to consumers. According to Prof Danbatta, VAS is an important service necessary for optimizing the benefits of telecom service to the consumers. It enables in a very special way, social media and e-commerce activities that might be useful to the consumer while offering a veritable tool for entrepreneurs and businesses, he said. The NCC EVC said: “Whereas VAS could be very useful and provide services that may interest consumers and assist online and offline entrepreneurs to reach customers particularly on the mobile markets both to advertise and to sell their products and services; on the other hand it could become a challenge, flooding the networks and thus consumers with all kinds of product offering that most consumers may not be interested in. “It is therefore necessary for the Commission to find a balance between enabling the opportunities that the VAS providers offer to some consumers, while at the same time mitigating the challenges or inconvenience they could constitute to other consumers. Thus, while service providers are licensed by the Commission and are allowed to operate and provide value added services to consumers, the consumers are empowered through the DND facility to choose whether to allow or block access to these services on a full or partial basis. “The Commission considers it necessary therefore to educate consumers regarding these exciting services so that they can understand and appreciate their potential benefits and take maximum advantages of them.” In the 82nd TCP whose theme is “Value Added Services (VAS) and its Benefits”, Prof Danbatta also promised the audience which included IT and telecom experts, civil servants, business men and women, women groups and students that the NCC would step up programmes aimed at empowering and protecting the telecom consumer while underscoring their primary place in the telecommunications service delivery. “Let me place on record Ladies and Gentlemen, that the Commission is not in any way, winding down on our avowed commitment to serve the consumer better in all fronts as the consumer remains the patron, paymaster and the KING of the industry”, he added. In his welcome address, the Director of Consumer Affairs Bureau at NCC, Alhaji Abdullahi Maikano, said the TCP had become and remained a veritable platform for NCC, the telecom operators and the consumers to assemble under one roof to discuss and proffer solutions to pertinent issues. Alhaji Maikano said the TCP continued to present brilliant ideas that have shaped the Commission’s regulatory focus and policies necessary to improve the lot of the Nigerian telecom consumer. “This is why today, we are bringing the issue of Value Added Services to the front burner to ensure a clearer understanding of its delivery in the Nigerian telecom market and how stakeholders can optimise the full potentials and derive maximum