The leadership of the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers’ (NATCOMS) has handed down a draft 6-Point agenda to the newly inaugurated board of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) led by Senator Olabiyi Durojaiye.
The agenda, anchored on subscribers’ pains and challenges in accessing telecoms services were contained in a statement issued Thursday by the President, Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo.
Top in the agenda is the urgent need to reduce mobile phone/cyber-crime attacks on subscribers.
NATCOMS said “The new Board should engage Security Agencies in order to empower Subscribers, interface with the Police and other Law Enforcement Agencies from the rank of Divisional Police Officer/Equivalent, so as 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 Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has been operating the N50 (Fifty Naira) Price Cap Regulation since 2001 to date. The Minister 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 dropping / breaking calls; undelivered but paid for text messages; data services deductions / internet poor quality; unauthorized call credit deductions, all without adequate reward and compensation.
The fourth agenda for the new board according to NATCOMS is to enforce the use of the CODE 2442 in order to stop unsolicited text messages to Subscribers. The Board must also take 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 and the recent threats/warning of sanctioning erring Operators.
Ogunbanjo also called on the Senator Durojaiye-led board to 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.
The last but not the least of the agenda presented by NATCOMS is for the team to ensure the enforcement of the Minister of Communications order of DATA/INTERNET BUNDLES ROLL-OVER, saying “Operators have not been complying with this directive”.
