NCC bans promos, lotteries by telecoms operators

Posted by: Lucas Ajanaku Posted date: November 13, 2012 In: Featured, News |

Regulator of the telecoms sector, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), yesterday banned telecoms operators from running promos and lotteries.
It attributed network congestion to the promos.
Director, Public Affairs of the commission, Tony Ojobo in a statement, lamented that the commission has, in recent times’ been inundated with complaints from consumers, and others against the various promotions offered by telecommunications operators.
The statement said: “Consistent with its processes, the commission has carefully evaluated the complaints received especially against the backdrop of sustaining the integrity of the networks, the general interest of the consumers, the socio-economic impact of these promotions on operators and other relevant stakeholders.
“The commission therefore has banned all promotions by telecommunications network operators as well as lotteries being carried out on such networks. This ban covers all proposed and approved promotions and lotteries on which the commission has given approval further to the memorandum of understanding (MOU) entered into with the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC)”
The commission said the ban takes immediate effect and shall continue to remain in force until such a time as may be determined by the Commission. Affected operators are Globacom, MTN, Intercellular, Visafone, Etisalat, Airtel and Multilinks.
The commission assured all telecommunications consumers of its resolve to ensure that the quality of service offered across all networks is such that delivers value to the consumers.
“ In due regard to the afore-mentioned responsibilities, therefore and having observed that these promotions have increased the number of minutes available to subscribers for use within a limited period of time thereby creating congestion in the networks as subscribers try to use up the available minutes within the stipulated time.
“That on-net calls were now being offered by operators at tariffs well below the prevailing inter-connect rates thereby introducing anti-competitive practices and behaviour.
“That termination of calls were becoming increasingly difficult from one network to another and overall consumer experience on the networks has become very poor thereby making it extremely difficult for subscribers to make calls successfully,” NCC noted.

SOURCE: 13 November 2012.