Worried about the increasing rate at which telecoms operators and value added service providers are broadcasting unsolicited short message service (SMS) and voice calls to telecoms subscribers, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has warned operators to either stop the practice or risk sanction if found wanting.

Director, Consumer Affairs of NCC, Mrs. Maryam Bayi, who issued the warning at an interactive session with journalists in Lagos recently, said the Commission is inundated with complaints from subscribers who are disturbed by incessant SMS and voice calls they receive on a daily basis. She said the NCC is considering regulating such SMS and voice calls, with the intention to sanction those behind it.

According to her, subscribers mistake the unsolicited SMS and voice calls for real business calls, especially when they are expecting important SMS and voice calls from either their business partners, their superior officers, friends or relations, only to discover that the call or SMS originated from telecoms operators and value added service providers, who use such means for their tele-marketing.

She explained that if there are regulations, there will be some form of restrictions on the part of the operators, in broadcasting such messages.
Director, Public Affairs of NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo, who also shared the pains of subscribers over unsolicited messages and voice calls, called on subscribers to challenge the operators by calling them to stop such broadcast, each time they received unsolicited text messages and voice calls.

Telecoms operators have defended themselves at different telecoms fora, insisting that the unsolicited SMS and voice calls do not emanate directly from them, but from value added service providers that have been licensed by the NCC to do SMS broadcast.

In spite of the denial, the unsolicited SMS and voice calls still circulate to millions of subscribers on a daily basis and subscribers are highly irritated by it.
Other issues discussed at the interactive forum, were centered around the 2.6GHz spectrum, and the delay in the rollout of 2.3GHz spectrum licence, which the NCC sold to Bitflux in February 2014.

Fielding questions from journalists in these areas, the Director, Spectrum Administration and Control of NCC, Mr. Austin Nwalune said the Commission is making fresh plans to license the 2.6GHz spectrum band, and promised that NCC will revisit the guidelines for the rollout of 2.3GHz spectrum and carryout the necessary enforcement that will compel Bitflux to rollout service on the 2.3GHz spectrum, which it won last year.

Chief Executive Officer of VDT Communications, one of the three consortiums that made up Bitflux, Mr. Biodun Omoniyi, has however promised Nigerians that the company would roll out service on the 2.3GHz spectrum in April next month.

"We are ready to roll out, having signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with an international vendor to supply equipment that will facilitate service rollout. Initially we wanted to roll out at the end of the first quarter of the year, but that plan has been shifted by two weeks, which means we have a new date to rollout service by April this year," Omoniyi said.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/ncc-to-sanction-operators-for-unsolicited-sms-voice-calls/204518/


Make una start with Airtel

This space is not for sale
Beware of my toothless bulldog NCC

we will very love that!

Imagine mtn sending a message to me asking me to text COLOR to 30506 to know the color of the cat that fits being your pet, each SMS cost 50naira.

Shey dem mad ni?

Finally! MTN should be sanctioned the most! They are their annoyingly stupid Did You Know & subscription texts...

Alas! NCC has woken up from their deep slumber!

Empty N will top the list

Act not Talk jor.. that was how the house promised to force DSTV to reduce its tariff. Btw d fines will go into ur

God bless Gej, I thank u Jesus for choosing Gej and reject that evil man buhari

Den just dey wake abi? We all know how this will end, they will eventually sanction the Companies and tell them to pay one chicken change that they will pay that same day. NCC is only active if it needs money

Issokay

That will be damn great.

Mtn and Etisalat has made my SMS inbox as their house for unsolicited messages.


Infact, I'll like NCC to make them pay subscribers in return, should they break the rules of sending unsolicited and junk messages. Haba!

GLO should be number 1.

Those stupid calls they make is annoying.

Now they even call you with 11 digit number so you think its a human being calling you.

It will reduce the instances of people stumbling over things (and probably breaking a leg) in a rush to answer an expected important call only to discover that it's a machine that's calling! What the he...

The sanction or money collected from defaulters should be divided among the Network users and sent to them as credit




SEE Bus that uses faeces as Fuel
SOURCE: [url=/F63]http://www.e reporter.com.ng/index.php/more-news/science-tech-news/item/4031-bus-that-runs-totally-on-human-faeces[/url]

yes please . especially airtel

[size=18pt]TO SANCTION [/size]

k

We have been hearing about sanction long ago.

good

Airtel! !!!

Praise the Lord somebody!!


Only if it's really true and not just words without action sh

ITS ABOUT TIME!!!

[size=22pt] Vote Out NOT-GIVE-A-DAMNness


Vote in INTEGRITY!! [/size]

Nice 1, because those calls and SMS are just too many these days.

finally!!!!!!!

[size=25pt]Please sanction MTN... Please[/size]

Nice move.

used that rubbish mtn for good 10years ..I decided to port to Etisalat last year december because of their foolish and meaningless messages and calls ...they should section them first.

Use Truecaller app, and set it to block spam calls. It will also identify unknown numbers where possible.

#change