Why we placed blanket ban on promos, lotteries - NCC

Apex telecommunications regulator in the land, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has adduced real reasons why it placed ‘blanket’ ban on all promotions and lotteries by seven telecom operators in the country.

The affected network operators consist of Globacom Limited, MTN Nigeria, Intercellular Nigeria plc, Visafone Communications Ltd, Etisalat Nigeria, Airtel Networks Limited and MultiLinks Telecoms Limited.

Director, Public Affairs at NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo, explained in a three-point on why the ban on all promos has become imminent, describing the exercise by mobile operators as “abuse of market power.”

According to him, the Commission has to take this step in order to protect and promote the interest of consumers against unfair practices, promote fair competition in the industry.

Additionally, he said, that NCC needed to protect telecom consumers from operators’ willingness to misuse market power, which are anti-competitive and unfair practices by operators.

Other reasons adduced by NCC for its action include “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, and;

“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.

“Consequent upon the above-mentioned, 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).”

NCC further observed that it has, in recent times been swamped with several complaints from consumers, industry stakeholders against the various promotions offered by telecommunications operators.

As said by him, the consistency of NCC motivated it to carefully evaluate 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.

Just as NCC, he said, reassured all telecommunications consumers of its resolve to ensure that the Quality of Service (Qos) offered across all networks is such that delivers value to the consumers. 

Remmy Nweke
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