The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, said it has discovered 41 illegal service providers operating in the nation’s telecommunications landscape and servicing internet users.
The telecoms regulatory body revealed this in its “2016 Q1 Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Reports.” According to the NCC, there was compliance monitoring regarding the engagement of unlicensed service providers, providing internet/data access in Nigeria.
It said following the commissions’ surveillance and intelligence gathering, it discovered that some financial institutions engaged the illegal providers for their internet and data services.
According to the report, in line with the commission’s compliance processes, these banks were requested to provide the names and details of their service providers.
“Arising from this compliance check, the commission has discovered that 41 companies engaged were operating without the requisite authorisation.
“To this end, the Commission has commenced the necessary enforcement process in line with the provisions of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003,” it said.
The report said the telecommunications umpire’s activities were in accordance with Section 89 of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003 which mandates NCC to “monitor all significant matters relating to the performance of all licensed telecom service providers and publish annual reports at the end of each financial year.”
NCC had developed Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement strategies to ensure fair competition, ethical market conduct and optimal quality service in the telecommunications industry.
Meanwhile, the Commission said yesterday that active subscribers in the nation’s telecommunications industry stood at 150,262,066 in July.
The telecommunications umpire said in its Monthly Subscriber Data, MSD, that the active telecommunications service customers increased by 443,160 from the June 2016 figure of 149,818,906.
According to the data, 149,708,077 of the 150,262,066 active numbers subscribed to the Global System for Mobile Communications, GSM, network services. GSM operators’ active customers increased by 528,994 from 149,179,083 subscribers they recorded in June.
Code Division Multiple Access, CDMA, operators had 371,614 active users in July, indicating a decrease of 82,479 from the 454,092 customers they had in June.
Also, the monthly subscriber data showed that Fixed Wired/Wireless networks’ consumers decreased to 164,114 in July, as they lost 6,425 customers to their record of 170,539 in June.
