NATCOMS urges NCC board to reduce price cap, others

The National Association of Telecoms Subscribers’ (NATCOMS) has urged the new board of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to urgently, in the spirit of consumer-centrism, review charges, tariffs and other pricing regimes in the industry.

Chief Adeolu Ogunbanjo, president, NATCOMS in a congratulatory message the new NCC board, said that “The Board should as a matter of urgency reduce the current unrealistic and exploitative price cap of N50 per minute. The issue of Poor Quality of Telecoms Services, with particular reference to the vexed issue of dropped / breaking calls; undelivered but paid for text messages; indiscriminate voice / data services deductions / internet poor quality; unauthorized call credit deductions, all without adequate reward and compensation.

“Other key issues the Board must decisively discuss include restoration of Land lines by the National Carriers; unsolicited SMS; enforcing the use of the CODE 2442; interventions against mobile phone crimes; subscriber’s compensation plan and the lingering issue of data roll-over.”

Ogunbanjo said, “We welcome the new Board, and urge them on the restoration of land lines by the National Carriers must be addressed by the new Board, backed by a low inter-connect rates in line with international best practices. The current land line inter-connect rates, does not encourage the use of Land lines.

“The Board takes decisive action against Telecoms Operators that still enjoy sending unsolicited text messages that most of the time, lead to forced activations and regular unauthorized credit deductions even after NCC’s July 1, 2016 warning of sanctioning erring Operators. The Board must start enforcing the use of the CODE 2442 in order to stop unsolicited text messages to Subscribers”.

He said that in order to reduce mobile phone/cyber-crime, “the new Board should interface with the Police and other Law Enforcement Agencies in order to make mobile phone / cyber-crime reporting process, easy and less cumbersome. This will encourage the reporting of mobile phone / cyber-crime as well as make tracking of fraudsters easier. The current mobile phone / cyber-crime reporting process is very stressful, cumbersome and excessively engaging.

“The new Board should put in place a Subscriber’s Compensation Plan which will compensate subscribers with Free Airtime, anytime the Telecoms Operators perform below the Key Performance Indicators parameters (KPI) as set by the Nigerian Communications Commission. The current practice where Telecoms Operators fall short of KPI parameters and are imposing huge fines, which goes to government coffers, is to say the least, highly exploitative and unsavory of the Subscribers who suffers the injury and the brunt of poor quality service and other unauthorized deductions.”