zizirecords:
Oh my God! See me dancing! MTN just stole 8000NGN credit from my phone last week with no adequate redress even when I called them several times.

God catch them. Steal 8000NGN, repay 5 billion.

michaeadi:
These is not the kind of fine we expect from NCC.. Inasmuch as MTN Nigeria is not the market favorites. NCC should at least provide enabling environment for business to thrive... May these developments not lead to rippling effects on the job market

leonn:
Ncc is high on weed konk igboh....well am not surprised some top politicians playing game as usual manipulating powers that be in order to force mtn out of Nigeria so they cud buy it over......corruption in high places at play. let them know that when you steal or take by force what u cant have it will go like the Wind when u eventually posses it.

iamdapsyj:
I think it should be 5 billion naira if the news is true because I don't see a fine that can amount to 5 billion dollars (it's too steep). No company in Nigeria will survive that kind of penalty.

ameynuJR:
MTN be like any promotional message they sent to subscribers them go charged for it. NCC don caused it for una

14:


THEY NEED TO BE VERY CAREFUL, potential investors are watching this with great interests. If this is how foreign companies are treated in Nigeria, god forbid, it will be bad for a poor man on the street. Low investment, no jobs around. DISASTER waiting to happen.

cupidhero:
5 billion dollars is too small. MTN should pay more than that. DSTV na angel compared to MTN.

rusher14:


The hefty fine might sound the death knell for MTN however, which despite their abuses should not be encouraged.

Mavor:
These NCC clowns are thieves. Shay they are trying to run these guys out of Nigeria in connivance with Adenuga and co ba? These guys who took the big risk to invest in Nigeria in the first place and now that the investment is paying off, people are not happy. The regulatory body needs to get it's house in order.

MTN needs to get it's acts together.

sevule:
I definitely agree that MTN should be fined but a fine of $5 billion is totally ridiculous. How did they arrive at that figure? It makes no sense at all.

Ups01:


I disagree with you!

MTN Hires the best brains give you irresistible offers and they make their cool cash, simple! They understand the law of supply and demand.

In conclusion MTN is not a crook at least not as exaggerated.

PS am not on MTN PAYROLL

ceaser:


Oh so you don't know. Well, I got news for you. MTN is DSTV which is GoTV which is Ecobank which is Jumia which is also ShopRite, all owned by South Africa and all unleashed on Nigerians to swindle us all in ways they can never try in their home country.

14:


THEY NEED TO BE VERY CAREFUL, potential investors are watching this with great interests. If this is how foreign companies are treated in Nigeria, god forbid, it will be bad for a poor man on the street. Low investment, no jobs around. DISASTER waiting to happen.

ceaser:


My dear friend. MTN in connivance with NCC and some unscrupulous elements in the Nigerian politicians ran down our indigenous HITV and "approved" an illegal Terrestrial broadcast licence for GoTV cum DSTV to also drive the indigenous StarTimes out of the market. But those were possible only in the days of anything goes. Now it's business UNusual. You do the crime, you pay. Corporate crimes will no longer do unpunished or unchallenged.

Even FirstBank and UBA are already licking their sore thumb now.

14:


MTN wont last 5yrs in Nigeria, mark my words. It has been clear that the nigerian authority want them out, but they dont know how to kick them out. The regulatory environment has been tough for them, they will be left with no option but to sell the nigerian business. But the question is who will buy it, knowing the regulatory environment to be tough. Nigeria is just setting a bad precedent, potential investors will pull back after seeing whats been happening, hash treatment towards foreign businesses.

ceaser:


Oh, wrong you are and you can't be further away from the truth. MTN leaves today, that's less saturation of the telecom market and ten more operators worldwide are waiting to fill in.

Here is something: When GSM first started in Nigeria, most operators worldwide were skeptical of its success in Nigeria so they held back from investing. Only Econet wireless and MTN took the risk. Look at whether we are today. Nigeria telco market is touted as the fastest growing worldwide.

No operator that knows her onions would wanna miss out on such sure deal not minding whatever atmosphere prevails, and business atmosphere in Nigeria ain't worse than what it wad when Econet wireless started.

14:


Just for correction, startimes is a chinese company. They are no different from DStv, is still a foreign company. So you willing to chase away an African company and petronise an Asian company.
http://en.startimes.com.cn/companyprofile/index.htm

ceaser:


Oh no. You don't get it and you are missing the point. NTA brought StarTines consortium into the country. It is a partnership aimed at meeting the deadline of overall digitalisation of broadcast by 2016. Digital broadcast Television (DBTV) is what NTA aims at and they partnered with Startimes China for take off and management till a specified period after which total ownership is handed over to NTA.

DBTV as operated by Startimes Nigeria made TV subscription more affordable to Nigerians and more subscribers joined the wagon, with a negative effect on DSTV, the sole operator of satellite TV broadcast in the country (after HITV has been taken care of).

DSTV could not directly fight off StarTimes since they were on two different platforms. The only way to fight of the bleeding subscribers on their platform was to field a DBTV outfit (they got the money and the willingness to illegally subvert decisions - that's business, though dirty and allowed by Nigeria atmosphere)

So they started GoTv. StarTimes took 'em to court on the premise that DSTV was not licenced to operate DBTV, only satellite TV. This is true and under no circumstance should DSTV, a company licenced only for satellite TV broadcast by NCC should be allowed to operate DBTV which StarTimes has been licenced for.

Well, absurdly but not unusually, DSTV won.

himkers:
[size=15pt]God don dey catch them; remaining DSTV. Abeg who dey sanction TV companies??[/size]

iliyande:
MTN subscribers be ready to pay for the fine,

MTN will make sure they deduct the money from your daily recharge to pay for the fine

emmydeep:
Well Nigeria; but my glo sim which i did not register is still active so why did Nigeria fined only MTN?

phrezzz:
14 u are 1 of the few SAn that write with valid points and there is truth in what u have said but not did MTN fail to disconnect unregistered sims they also dodged TAX. i quite agree $5.1b is a rediculous amount probably both parties will resolve it. as it stands mtn has 62mill nigerian subscribers and i read somewhere they were trying to pull out from SA. so people saying mtn ng will pull out from ng is like telling them to commit sucide.