Telcos risk N500,000 fine for violation of DND instruction

A fine of N500,000 will be slammed on any telecom operator that violates the Do-Not-Disturb (DND) instruction, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has warned. NCC’s Deputy Director, Licensing and Authorisation, Mr. Philip Eretan, gave the warning in Lagos Thursday at the 83rd edition of the Telecom Consumer Parliament (TCP) Th e forum was sequel to complaints of unsolicited messages by telecom consumers on Value Added Services (VAS). It had the theme, “Value Added Services (VAS) and its Benefits to Consumers”.

Eretan said that NCC had mandated telecom companies to provide adequate information on the services off ered. He said that network providers would be held responsible for whatever would  happen on their networks. ” A fine of N500,000 will be paid by any network violating the DND instruction,” he said. Earlier in his address, Prof. Umar Danbatta, NCC Executive Vice Chairman, said the parliamentary session was to educate consumers on the benefits of VAS messages and ways to deal with them. He noted that the subject was discussed in Abuja during the 82nd edition of TCP.

Prof Danbatta said that low participation of the targeted stakeholders especially VAS providers and the need to underscore the importance of the segment of telecom market made the commission to engage the industry stakeholders on the subject. “There is no doubt that VAS is adding to the excitement in the telecom market as well adding up to consumer quality of experience in the industry. “Th e Value Added Service is an important element of the telecom ecosystem network for optimising the benefits of telecom service to consumers. ” It enables, in a very special way, social media and e-commerce activities that may be useful to the consumer while offering a veritable tool for entrepreneurs and businesses in this modern and mobile age of the internet. “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, ’’ he said. Danbatta said that, on the other hand, it could become a challenge when VAS would flood networks with all kinds of product off er that most consumers might not be interested in. He said that the commission, therefore, deemed it fit to find a balance between enabling the opportunities that VAS could off er to some consumers and mitigating the challenges or inconveniences they could constitute to other consumers.

Danbatta said while network service providers were licensed by the commission and allowed to operate and provide value-added services to consumers, the consumers were empowered through the DND platform to choose whether to allow or block access to the services. It would be recalled that close to 10 million subscribers have activated the Do-Not-Disturb code of the Commission (2442) to block unsolicited text messages–from 500k lines before the campaign, while close to the same number have used the 622 toll-free line of the regulator to escalate complaints. He said the recent reform the Commission embarked on in the VAS segment of the market was a further recognition of significant role of VAS in the entire telecom ecosystem. ‘

’You will therefore recall that the Commission on March 1, 2018 held a Consultative Forum on Value Added Services Aggregator Framework at the Commission’s head office in Abuja. ‘’ Th e Forum is one of a series of Consultations started by the Commission since early last year with different stakeholders of the VAS sub- sector of the industry to discuss and finetune the framework’s regulatory intervention. ‘’Th e framework designed by the Commission in consultation with industry players is to be adopted to enhance regulatory excellence and ease the operations of VAS provision in the Nigeria’s telecoms industry. ‘’

The addition of the VAS Aggregator player to the original Value chain (Content Developer- VAS ProviderNetwork Service Provider) will lead to the recreation of the value chain into a framework of Content Developer- VAS Service ProviderVAS Aggregator- Network Service Provider.  The overall aim of this reform is to ensure fairness in the entire VAS value chains. ‘’I must say that the VAS segment of the industry despite its challenges is no doubt a hub for employment opportunities, huge revenue generation and national economic development.  It must therefore accord necessary regulatory intervention to realise its full potentials.   ‘’The Commission considers it necessary therefore to educate consumers regarding these exciting services so that they can understand and appreciate their potential benefi s and take maximum advantages of the services. Th is is to ensure adequate patronage by the consumers and guarantee sustainability of the VAS sub sector of telecom market’’, he said. He vowed that the NCC would continue to make the consumer the real King of the Industry