The recent ban on telecoms promos and lotteries by the Nigerian
Communications Commission (NCC), has continued to generate reactions from
stakeholders and operators, finding faults in the action of NCC. NCC, the telecoms industry regulatory body, last week, rose from a meeting,
where it took a decision to ban promos and lotteries operated by telecoms
operators across networks. The regulatory authority insisted the telecoms
operators must stop promos and lotteries indefinitely because they were
attracting unusual traffic to networks, thereby causing network congestion. The ban, which was announced last week, has continued to elicit varied
reactions. Some have hailed the decision of NCC, while many have faulted it,
explaining that there could be better ways of handling the challenges of network
congestion across networks. Telecoms operators, under the aegis of Association of Licensed Telecoms
Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), however have different views to the issue, as
they insisted that natural and man-made disaster, were actually the cause of
recent network congestion, rather than promos and lotteries as believed by the
NCC and some telecoms subscribers. NCC's Position Announcing the ban, Director, Public Affairs for NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo, said the
decision became necessary, following increased congestion across networks
that was traced to incessant promos and lotteries. The ban, according to Ojobo, would cover all proposed and approved
promotions and lotteries on which the commission had given approval further to
the memorandum of understanding (MOU) entered into with the National Lottery
Regulatory Commission (NLRC). Ojobo said the ban shall continue to remain in force until such a time as may
be determined by the commission. Giving reasons for the ban, he explained that promotions had 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. He also added 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. Another reason he gave was that termination of calls were becoming
increasingly difficult from one network to another and overall consumer
experience on the networks had become very poor thereby making it extremely
difficult for subscribers to make calls successfully. He noted that the commission had, in recent times been inundated with several
complaints from consumers and industry stakeholders against the various
promotions offered by telecommunications operators. "The commission 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 the promotions on
operators and other relevant stakeholders, before concluding on the ban,"
Ojobo said. The operators affected by the ban include: Globacom, MTN, Airtel, Etisalat,
Intercellular, Visafone, and Multilinks. Lottery Commission's View Responding to the ban on promos and lotteries, Director-General, National
Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC), Mr. Peter Igho, said the ban was in
good fate and in the interest of the general public. He however regretted that the ban came at a time his commission was trying to
redeem the image of lottery activities in the country and make its importance
known to Nigerians. According to him, lotteries all over the world were capable of generating huge
sum of money for economies, insisting that the same could be replicated in
Nigeria, if properly managed. He said his commission took it upon itself to strictly monitor telecoms promos
and lotteries across the country, in order to ensure that subscribers were not
short-changed and that the operators delivered on promise. He frowned on telecoms promos and lotteries that encouraged indiscriminate
use of free airtime and short messages (SMS), which compelled subscribers to
generate unplanned calls, just because they must exhaust their bonus call
credits before a given time. He said the situation attracted heavy traffic on networks, and might have led to
congestion. "The lottery commission has entered into discussions with NCC on
the way forward," Igho said. Public View Members of the public, who spoke from a technical background, had come out
to criticise the reasons advanced by the NCC for the ban. A Lagos-based engineer, Mr. Johnson Ibe, who is a subscriber to Globacom
and MTN, told THISDAY that promos and lotteries had nothing to do with
network congestion and that people could freely participate in promos and
lotteries and enjoy the benefits, without affecting service quality. Speaking from an engineering perspective on promos and lotteries, Ibe said
there was no evidence that previous promos, which ran between June and
September 2012 on the major networks, caused any degradation in service
quality. "For the purposes of determining the kind of promos that will most likely
degrade network service quality, a clear distinction must be made between
premium rated promos which charge the subscribers a premium tariff to
participate and win tangible prizes; and those promos that encourage
indiscriminate use of free airtime and SMS," Ibe said. He described premium promos as the promos which subscribers consciously
opt-in and participate by following steps which convey their unambiguous
intention to subscribe and participate; and carry on for a predetermined period
of time. He explained that statistics available to him showed that less than 10 per cent
of total subscriber base on a mobile network opt-in to participate in the premium
rated promos, due largely to the premium charges and other conditions for
participating. He described free call/SMS promos as the promos, which reward the entire pre-
paid subscriber base of a mobile network by allowing free airtime and free SMS
upon reaching a daily usage limit. An official of one of the telecoms operators, who spoke in anonymity, told
THISDAY that if promos had been identified as a major cause of recent
network degradation, then attention should shift to those promos ran by some
operators that encouraged free calls and free SMS, as well as those promos
that do not incorporate opt-in capabilities. He advised the NCC to continue to impose financial sanctions where such
operators fail to meet agreed service quality levels, insisting that it would
ensure that the operators use network resources optimally and efficiently. He also suggested that operators should refrain from running free voice and
SMS promos for the time being, until notable improvements occurs on the
network, and that all promos must provide clear opt-in and opt-out options. He called on NCC to allow operators to run only promos approved by the lottery
commission, which must meet national standards. Subscribers' Reaction Telecoms subscribers have reacted differently to the promo ban. Some have
hailed the decision of NCC, while others have cautioned NCC to thread with
caution. President of the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS),
Mr. Deolu Ogunbanjo, said the ban would affect telecoms subscribers who had
benefitted from promos as well as more subscribers that would have benefitted
more, if there was no ban. He gave instances of the aeroplane and luxurious buses promos, which he said
were clear instances of how operators were empowering telecoms subscribers. He however called on NCC and the federal government to make adequate
provision for more infrastructure rollout, since the NCC believed that promos
were causing congestion on the various networks. Stephen Udoka, a subscriber to MTN network, hailed the decision of NCC on
the ban. According to him, the issue of promos were becoming uncontrollable and the
operators were using it to abuse the intelligence of their subscribers. "It is
frustrating when someone tries to pull a call across and such call will not go
through because of congestion. It is equally frustrating for someone to try
loading a mobile phone for days without being successful because of network
congestion," Udoka said. He called on operators to always expand their networks commensurably with
the rate of subscriber intake on their networks, if they must engage in promos.
"At the end, only a handful of subscribers are fortunate to win the promos, while
millions of subscribers suffer congestion as a result of the promos," he added. Blaming Congestion on Disasters ALTON, however, has alternative views as to the actual cause of network
congestion across networks. Chairman of ALTON, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, who said the issue with network
congestion was far from telecoms promos and lotteries, attributed the network
challenges to natural and man-made disasters. According to him, the major
cause of poor service quality across networks, as experienced in recent times,
should be blamed on natural and man-made disasters, rather than on promos
and lotteries. He said the natural disasters were caused by flooding in some southern parts
of the country, while the man-made disasters were caused by spontaneous
attacks on telecoms facilities in some northern parts of the country by gunmen
in September this year. Insisting on natural and man-made disasters as root causes for network
congestion, Adebayo said the attacks on telecoms facilities which occurred in
the early hours of the 5th, 6th 7th and 8th of September 2012 and other
incidences afterwards, resulted in severe service disruptions in the areas
primarily affected and by extension other parts of the country. "The impacts of the attacks had since limited the ability of millions of Nigerian
subscribers to access telecommunications services, because the incidents
affected over 250 telecoms sites that lost connection and many suffered
significant damage beyond repairs," Adebayo said. He added that the unprecedented flood in some parts of the country destroyed
Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) along its path, leading to significant service
disruption in the affected areas, with consequential impact on service
availability in some other parts that were not affected by the flood. "Other than disruption to services, our members have lost equipment worth
several billions of naira to the flood disaster across the country, as over
additional 300 BTS sites were affected by the flood," Adebayo said. He called on government to provide the necessary protection to telecoms
facilities in the national interest of the country.

allafrica.com/stories/201211220159.html?maneref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fm%3Fq%3Dncc%2Bbans%2Bpromo%26client%3Dms-opera-mini-iphone%26channel%3Dnew&mstac=0&viewall=1

So the masses must suffer b/c of congestion dat is caused by a lack of infrastructure of d NCC n d Telcoms

The fight against Cybercrime in Nigeria should start from the telecoms operators. It is unfortunate that the government of this country has sold its people into slavery to the so called operators. How on earth could our government pretend not to know that the operator especially MTN, GLO, AIRTEL and ETISALAT are promoting gambling, laziness and greed especially among the youth in the country. The rates at which they disturb subscribers with unsolicited text messages and "Ponzi" promos is quite worrisome. The more you ignore or delete such messages, the more you receive from them. Of course, GLO cases are particularly annoying. Even when u call to inform these operators about your dissatisfaction about their disturbances, it makes no difference, as whatever step they ask u to take to deactivate such messages never worked. In most cases, the response u get is "The service is not available now, try later". Above all, they deceive subscribers to migrate to a certain plan without clear terms other than "Condition applies" only to discover that your airtime is being depleted irrationally for no effective service rendered. Imagine a situation when they claimed they were running a promo on television and they put the picture of a popular celebrity on television screen and asking people to choose the correct name of the celebrity among three or four different names given at N100 per message with the promise of a reward that is less than One million. Calculate it; if about five million unsuspecting Nigerians responded to such promo, it means the telecom company must have made a whopping sum of N500,000,000.00. Nigerians should rise up and condemn these thieving of the telecoms companies in stronger terms than ever. I am aware that NCC at one time or the other slammed fines of various amounts on the operators, yet the trend is getting worse daily and the quality of services rendered are getting poorer. In view of the foregoing, it is exigent that the government and its regulatory agencies should show genuine concerns about its people and put necessary measures in place to mitigate this ugly and unethical practices of telecom operators in Nigeria.[quote author=Jon-Ajumobi B.]