Four major telecommunications companies in Nigeria have been fined for various actions that contravene the rules and regulations of the Nigerian Communications Commission.
The regulatory body of the telecoms sector fined MTN Nigeria, Airtel, Glo, and 9mobile for promotions and sim card registration, among other industry activities that were unapproved by the commission.
Reason for the fine
NCC fined MTN, Airtel, Glo, and 9mobile for a total N74 million for various infarctions aforementioned. Among these infractions includes routing of a minimum of 10 per cent of interconnect traffic through interconnect exchange licensees; quality of service; approval for promotions and advertisements; and SIM registration in a controlled environment, among others.
These were listed by the regulatory body in 2018 as part of the noncompliance by the network providers. The fine, however, is basically for SIM registration infractions, which NCC claimed all network operators are guilty. Adding that all network operators were involved in SIM registration outside a controlled environment.
Added to the list are unapproved promos and advertisements, and failure to provide information on collapsed towers.
Breakdown of fine
The four major telecoms operators were fined N60 million by the NCC, with Glo receiving the highest fine, while Airtel followed, and MTN and 9mobile earned the same fine for different infractions.
In a Guardian report, Glo was fined N30 million, Airtel N20 million, MTN received N5 million and 9mobile was also fined N5 million, with NCC issuing a deadline of September 14, 2018 to pay.
This was linked to the telecoms regulator’s instruction in 2017 that telecoms operators to stop registering SIM cards under umbrellas, kiosks or other uncontrolled environments.
NCC also fined Glo N2m for an unapproved advert tagged ‘Enjoy non-stop browsing this season of love,’ and for its ‘E-Top-Up 8X Bonus’ promo, the NCC noted that it was not approved and violated the floor price, thereby fining the company a total of N4m for the two infractions. Globacom was also fined N2m for its failure to provide information regarding its collapsed masts in two sites situated in Jalingo, Taraba State
Also, MTN was fined N2m for not seeking regulatory approval for its ‘Yafun Yafun SIM’ promotion, while 9mobile got a total fine of N4m for two different promotions – My 9mobile App and ZTE MF910 4 G Mi-Fi promotions – both of which were unapproved by the commission.
MTN Nigeria leads the telecoms industry with 43,899,957 million subscribers, Airtel comes second with 29,757,791 million subscribers in Nigeria, Globalcom accounts for 28,054,948 million subscribers, while 9mobile has 9,919,820 subscribers.
