₦airaland Forum

Hi All,

I have held suspicion that the rate at which my mobile data runs down does not reflect my use. Suspicion was initially nudged when I checked my data balance on a Saturday morning, 6th of August; Airtel replied with a message stating 707MB left. I then checked later in the day but this time around, it was 0MB!

I had not used data that Saturday and called customer care to complain. The attendant told me "if we have short changed you, your data would be refunded" and that was the end of it. Never heard from Airtel again.

I decided to monitor my data usage and downloaded the "Mobile Data Usage" app developed by Gibli mobile. The app allowed me measure my phone's data consumption by entering the valid period (e.g. 30 days), data limit (12GB) and date the validity starts. This way I would know exactly how much data my phone consumes per day and also which app consumes it.

On the 8th of August, I bought 12GB data valid for 30 days from Airtel and entered the required information on the app. On Friday 19th August, I decided to compare  data balance on the app against Airtel's reported balance.

App: 8.7 GB Remaining
Airtel: 5.1 GB Remaining.

That's 3.6 GB less of what I should have!

This is where I hope you can help, I am at the moment alone and my evidence may be easily dismissed. But you can help spread awareness and ask people to monitor their data balance. An overwhelming outcry from consumers would make the network providers accountable.

Remember not too long ago, VolksWagen faced heavy fines in some countries for installing software to delibrately cheat motor vehicle emissions test. This is not beyond Nigerian Telecoms, we the consumers have to be our own watchdog and protect our interest.

I have attached screen shots showing data balance from Airtel and the App on Friday 19th August and also data balance sent by Airtel on Saturday 6th of August.

Hope this achieves its true purpose to raise desired awareness.