Globacom subscribers who were promised free data, may have to wait a while as the Nigerian Communciations Commission (NCC) has instructed the company to stop a planned Free Data promo, which was to commence today. In a letter to the company, NCC stated that the promo According to the NCC, the promo was beyond the boundaries that had been set by an earlier promo, Glo had got approval for in March. Gladys Talabi Chief Executive Officer (CEO) was also summoned by the NCC.
GSM operator Globacom had promised subscribers it was going to launch a Free data day this Friday 11th August 2017.
Here are key points about the now suspended promo:
- Eligible customers were to get 200MB free data
- The promo was for prepaid subscribers
- To qualify for the offer, customers would have had to use 100MB plus 150 on calls or spend either N150 on calls or N250 between Friday the 4th of August to Thursday 11th of August.
What would happen next
The NCC could possibly decide to fine Globacom for the breach, as it operates a strict regulatory regime. MTN Nigeria, in October 2015 was fined N1.04 trillion for failing to deactivate improperly registered sims. After several court cases and diplomatic intervention by South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma, the fine was reduced to N330 billion to be paid in tranches. In addition, MTN was mandated to list on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and tender an unreserved apology.
Globacom started operations on August 29 2003 and is one of Nigeria’s biggest telecommunication firms with 34.7 million subscribers as at June 2017.