All the four mobile network operators in the country, MTN, Airtel, Globacom and 9mobile, have been slammed with a total fine of N1.36 billion by the Nigerian Communications Commissions for violating various industry regulations.
The NCC, in its 2020 third quarter enforcement report, stated that the network providers failed to comply with different industry regulations such as SIM Replacement Guideline, deactivation of improperly registered SIM cards and breaking the Do-Not-Disturb directive.
The commission said it investigations showed that Globacom, MTN, 9Mobile and Airtel, did not fully comply with the SIM Replacement Guideline in the fourth quarter of 2019.
As a result, the three telecoms operators were slammed with N250,000 each for the infractions.
The NCC stated that Airtel had been fined N3.25 million for 13 infractions while Globacom was asked to pay N9.250 million for 37 infractions related to SIM Replacement Guideline.
It added that MTN was also fined N9.25 million for improper SIM swap while 9moble was issued a strong warning.
“MTN was given an additional deadline of seven (7) days to provide the data on 37 SIM swaps, failing which MTN was sanctioned the sum of Nine Million, Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira (N9,250,000.00) accordingly,” the report stated.
“EMTS was given strong warning given the fact that the infractions were very negligible. The sanctions were computed at the rate of N250,000.00 for each infraction.”
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The NCC had issued new guidelines to toughened the process of replacing SIM cards in order to stop fraudulent use of mobile lines to steal from subscribers’ bank accounts.
The regulator said it had discovered that people who were not the owners of some numbers go to do SIM swap at various customer centres of the service providers.
As part of its quarterly enforcement exercise, the telecoms regulator stated that Globacom and 9mobile were discovered to have flouted the directive to deactivate SIMs that were not properly registered before 2016.
Consequent to this, NCC stated that Globacom was slammed with N1.15bn fine while 9mobile N195.2 million.
The report stated, “Following the Enforcement Exercise carried out in February 2020, Messrs. Globacom Limited and EMTS Limited (9mobile) were found to be non-compliant with the commission’s direction to deactivate SIMs that were not properly registered from the pool of pre-2016 MSISDNs.
“Consequently, Globacom and EMTS were fined One Billion, One Hundred and Forty Six Million and Four Hundred Thousand Naira Only (N1,146,400,000.00) and One Hundred and Ninety Five Million, Two Hundred Thousand Naira (N195, 200,000.00) respectively.”
It was discovered that were other infraction committed by the telecoms operators which did not attract any fine.
NCC said, “The Q1, 2020 audit of implementation of the Do-Not-Disturb (DND) facility, revealed that four MNOs were in breach of the DND Direction for failure to block unsolicited messages to 1,583 MSISDN and failure to ensure full compliance with the 12 hour period (8am – 8pm) allowed for sending messages as specified in the direction.
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The report added, “The audit exercise revealed that 7,172 SMS were sent to 204 subscribers outside the allowed time window.
“Consequently, the Commission in its letter dated September 1, 2020 issued a strong warning and directed MNOs to refund all monies deducted from the subscribers for forcefully subscribing them to unsolicited services, after requesting to opt in to the DND service.”
The NCC said it was at various levels of discussion with the affected MNOs to ensure that appropriate remedial actions are taken to optimum quality of experience on the networks.
